[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]
Israel’s prime minister dismissed a recent White House rebuke of Israeli construction, saying in comments broadcast on Sunday that the criticism goes “against American values.”
The tough words by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to deepen a rift with the White House over Israeli construction.
Israel came under fire last week after a Jerusalem city official signed the final go-ahead for construction of a new housing development in east Jerusalem.
In a striking public rebuke last week, the Obama administration warned Israel that the new project would distance Israel from “even its closest allies” and raise questions about its commitment to seeking peace with Palestinians.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Netanyahu said he does not accept restrictions on where Jews could live, and said that Jerusalem’s Arabs and Jews should be able to buy homes wherever they want.
He said he was “baffled” by the American condemnation. “It’s against the American values. And it doesn’t bode well for peace,” he said. “The idea that we’d have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace, I think it’s anti-peace.” The interview was recorded Thursday.
The White House declined comment.
(AP)
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3 Responses
Silly administration. Who’s going to build homes to live in? Certainly not the “Palestinians”.
His brilliance amazes me time and again! If only he would use it for קיום המצוות and עבודת ה’.
If it is against American values, then the opposition of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II was also against American values. Their position was identical to that of Obama.
Netanyahu is smart and of course he knows this.