Vice President Biden Condemns Israel’s Plans for New Settlements as Middle East Peace Talks Get Back on Track
EmailABC News’ Karen Travers and Simon McGregor-Wood report:
Vice President Joe Biden issued a strongly worded statement tonight condemning Israel’s plan to build 1,600 new settlement homes in the disputed area of east Jerusalem just as efforts got underway to kickstart Middle East peace talks.
“"I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,” Biden said from Jerusalem in a statement released by his office. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”
Earlier today Biden said he was pleased that the Israelis and Palestinians agreed to resume indirect peace talks after a 14-month lapse but tonight urged all sides to “build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them.”
Biden is traveling through the region this week, the highest-level visit to Israel by an Obama Administration official.
Today the vice president met today with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said he hoped that the revived peace talks would be a “vehicle” that would begin “to allay that layer of mistrust that has built over the last several years” between the two sides.
“We hope that these talks will lead, and they must lead, eventually to negotiations or direct discussions between the parties," Biden said at a news conference with Netanyahu.
In his statement released tonight Biden said the settlement announcement “underscores the need to get negotiations under way that can resolve all the outstanding issues of the conflict.”
Biden and Netanyahu had dinner tonight at the prime minister's residence, after Israel’s Interior Ministry announced the settlement construction plans. The vice president is expected to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday.
-Karen Travers and Simon McGregor-Wood
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Everyone should condemn the building of any new Israeli settlements on confiscated land.
Posted by: tierra | March 9, 2010, 4:20 pm 4:20 pm
Should have sent Emanuel over in his birthday suit.
Kind of hard to take this administration seriously–Biden, Obama, Rahm? Which one has any credibility?
Posted by: larry | March 9, 2010, 4:59 pm 4:59 pm
We should use our military in Iraq to bomb these settlements if they are expanded.
Posted by: Huh | March 9, 2010, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
Kind of hard to take this administration seriously–Biden, Obama, Rahm? Which one has any credibility?
Posted by: larry | Mar 9, 2010 4:59:13 PM
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Compared to who? The Republican administration of liars and deceivers under former President Bush’s under performing son? Scooter Libby, Cheney’s Chief of Staff – tried and convicted of criminal offences committed while in the White House? There’s credibility for you.
Posted by: tierra | March 9, 2010, 5:34 pm 5:34 pm
tierra-agreed. The only people with any cred seem to be the Ron Paul folks. Dems and Reps have failed us.
Posted by: Huh | March 9, 2010, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm
terra…the only ones who will save us from iranian nuclear armagedon is isreal. they didnt confiscate anything,,they won it after being attcked.
Posted by: catman | March 9, 2010, 5:42 pm 5:42 pm
terra…the only ones who will save us from iranian nuclear armagedon is isreal. they didnt confiscate anything,,they won it after being attcked.
Posted by: catman | March 9, 2010, 5:42 pm 5:42 pm
catman-Ya sure. Israel is going to cause war with their settlement/demarcation nonsense. What happened in 1948 was a huge mistake. Our support for Israel cruelty needs to end as should all aid.
Posted by: Huh | March 9, 2010, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
The oppressed always become the oppressors as soon as the opportunity arises. Israel attacked Egypt and Iran, but also the US. Remember the USS Liberty? Israel has no friends and they want no friends. We should withdraw all US support. They don’t want peace and we should stop wasting our time and money.
Posted by: Stan | March 9, 2010, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
somebody help me here as i dont know all the facts. are the palestinians christians? if so are the liberals suggesting we should support the christians? why dont the other middle eastern countrys help out? we need isreal to blow the tar out iran when they get vry close to having a nuke, because if tehy dont we will have to. i suoouse alot of people here support the taliban as well.
Posted by: catman | March 9, 2010, 6:01 pm 6:01 pm
catman-”we need isreal to blow the tar out iran” No we don’t. Iran hasn’t attacked anyone preemptively in 100 years. Israel and the US constantly do so maybe we should give up our capabilities and weapons. We need less war, but if Israel pulls the trigger, we should not support them. They should be on their own. They are an apartheid-practicing state that should be identified as such.
Posted by: Huh | March 9, 2010, 6:17 pm 6:17 pm
Every time peace talks come up, Israel drops a bomb, builds a settlement, cuts the water off to Gaza, etc. So ridiculous.
Posted by: Ben | March 9, 2010, 6:42 pm 6:42 pm
huh…thanks for the thoughts. i am puzzeld however, seems to me that allowing iran to have a nuke wouldnt be good for anyone and yet our sanctions never work.faced with the reality that iran supports terrorists and a bomb in their hands could be disasterous we may have no choice but to forcefully remove the nuclear threat.as it is much larger threat to isreal i believe,right or wrong, someone will forcefully deal with iran.lastly, why cant the isrealis and palesinans get along? or is like congress where they will never get along. isreal is not going away.
Posted by: catman | March 9, 2010, 7:19 pm 7:19 pm
An interesting fact is that in the Six-Day War, Israel captured Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. A little known fact, one neither our government nor the media draws any attention to, is that Israel didn’t capture these territories from Yasser Arafat or any country called Palestine. They captured them from Jordan’s King Hussein. Isn’t it a bit strange that all these Palestinians suddenly discovered or created a national identity after Israel won that war.
Does anyone suppose Joe Biden has any knowledge of the truth that Palestine is but a myth?
Posted by: Ed Taylor | March 9, 2010, 7:22 pm 7:22 pm
ed taylor…that assumes biden has any knowledge to begin with. i do like his honesty howver. he allways seems to tell the truth at the most inconvient time,
Posted by: catman | March 9, 2010, 7:39 pm 7:39 pm
Biden: “I think we should split Israel up into three separate countries.”
Posted by: For the Record | March 9, 2010, 7:45 pm 7:45 pm
catman-Not too worried about it. If they ever use it, they will be obliterated, and they know it. Quite frankly people should be just as worried by the people that have actually used them on civilians. I am no fan of the government of Iran which we facilitated through Operation Ajax, but they have a right to what they wish as long as it stays within their borders. Remember Israel and the US have been threatening Iran for decades. If I were them I would develop a nuke post haste.
Posted by: Huh | March 9, 2010, 7:50 pm 7:50 pm
Ed Taylor-1948 was the mistake. Regardless of what territory was captured in 1967, there will be no peace unless Israel pulls back to those borders. I think everybody knows this. Israel should finish there wall (no land grabs), and get the moral high ground (which they don’t have), and then when they are attacked, they can respond unbridled.
Posted by: Huh | March 9, 2010, 7:53 pm 7:53 pm
huh…fair enough and prbabaly would do the same. i wish they treted their people better and moved aawy from religious dictatorships.
Posted by: catman | March 9, 2010, 8:07 pm 8:07 pm
… there will be no peace unless Israel pulls back to those borders. I think everybody knows this. Israel should finish there wall (no land grabs), and get the moral high ground (which they don’t have), and then when they are attacked, they can respond unbridled.
Posted by: Huh | Mar 9, 2010 7:53:12 PM
I agree.Good posts on the topic. I admit I have to force myself not to bury my head in the sand in regards to the Middle East, but Glenn Greenwald has a good “compare and contrast” post up today with an update related to the relations between Iran and Israel, and AIPAC writing every member of US Congress urging ‘crippling’ sanctions on Iran.
Meanwhile at NYT I read the Palestinian response to the settlements: “Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian government, called the new housing announcement “a dangerous decision that will torpedo the negotiations and sentence the American efforts to complete failure.”
Mr. Abu Rudeineh added that “it is now clear that the Israeli government is not interested in negotiating, nor is it interested in peace.”
“The American administration must respond to this provocation with actual measures, as it is no longer possible to just turn the other cheek,” he continued, “and massive American pressure is required in order to compel Israel to abandon its peace-destroying behavior.”
There’s some truth in that and I find it odd that ABC didn’t include that. Maybe elsewhere?
Posted by: progressive mama | March 9, 2010, 8:32 pm 8:32 pm
progressive mama-good post. See a progressive and a Ron Paul supporter can see eye to eye. Remarkable!
Posted by: Huh | March 9, 2010, 8:37 pm 8:37 pm
Every time peace talks come up, Israel drops a bomb, builds a settlement, cuts the water off to Gaza, etc. So ridiculous.
Posted by: Ben | Mar 9, 2010 6:42:07 PM
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Posted by: tierra | March 9, 2010, 8:46 pm 8:46 pm
Please !!!!!!!!!! How can Israel a little country the size of Idaho be such a threat to the WHOLE WORLD ? Has anyone EVER taken the time to find out why ? Maybe we are missing something that would help the good old USA get out of this mess . maybe we have too much land .
Posted by: Virginia | March 9, 2010, 9:51 pm 9:51 pm
“Mr Perez, Mr Netenyahu,
“PULL BACK THOSE WALLS!”
Since BushRoveCheney used Iraq’s failure to comply with UN Resolutions as a pretext to invade Iraq, what’s to stop them using the same excuse to bomb the folly out of Israel?
If an argument has legs it should work any way up.
Posted by: Ronnie Bray | March 9, 2010, 11:11 pm 11:11 pm
This is surprising! Surprising that Biden is actually awake and trying to communicate. I thought that perhaps the wax museum…
Posted by: montucky | March 9, 2010, 11:33 pm 11:33 pm
“Does anyone suppose Joe Biden has any knowledge of the truth that Palestine is but a myth?” Oh come on. Are you seriously trotting out that old canard? Whatever you want to call it, there were people on that land who had lived there for generations who were ethnically cleansed from the area and denied international law required right of return.
Posted by: JoeyShabadoo | March 9, 2010, 11:54 pm 11:54 pm
Cut off their funding, their attitude will change real fast.
Posted by: Shawn Irwin | March 10, 2010, 4:29 am 4:29 am
This boot-licker and his boss are a disgrace, neither seems to know much about planet earth.
Posted by: wvason | March 10, 2010, 6:46 am 6:46 am
Old Joe is just jealous because another country actually has ‘housing starts’.. there you go again, Joe.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | March 10, 2010, 7:25 am 7:25 am
Old Joe better keep his mitts on his Passport – at all times – lest the Mossad use it to gain diplomatic access for further terror cleansing.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | March 10, 2010, 7:52 am 7:52 am
Why don’t this bass ackward administration stop harassing Israel and focus on the maniac in Iran? DUH!
Posted by: rkm63 | March 10, 2010, 8:07 am 8:07 am
It would appear few on this forum believe the old saying “to the victor, goes the spoils”? If you attack someone and they drive you back, well, maybe you should not have attacked. I do know Iran is a threat. Maybe not to the world, but enough of a threat to Israel to warrant plans for a military strike. Force toough sanctions on Iran while pushing for direct peace talks by using our foreign aid to Israel as leverage to stop the settlements.
Posted by: lfrichar | March 10, 2010, 10:11 am 10:11 am
lfrichar-Israel is the threat. We should then strike them too. Give me a break with your military profligacy.
Posted by: Huh | March 10, 2010, 10:48 am 10:48 am
Zuhair Mohsen is widely known for having made the following statement in a March 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw:
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
This was in line with his pan-Arab Ba’thist views, but completely at odds with the PLO charter, and several pro-Israeli commentators have raised the quote, arguing that it disproves the genuineness of Palestinian nationalism (and the need for a Palestinian state). In fact, Mohsen’s opinion reflected only an extreme minority opinion within the PLO and in Palestinian society – namely that of as-Sa’iqa, which was of course also that of Syria
Posted by: Ed Taylor | March 10, 2010, 11:26 am 11:26 am
None of YOUR Business…………….
Posted by: Parallax View | March 10, 2010, 11:49 am 11:49 am
“”"”"lfrichar-Israel is the threat. We should then strike them too. “”"”"
Posted by: Huh
What threat is Israel to us? We all know the Muslims do not want Israel around, they just can’t do anything about it. But, what threat are they to us?
Posted by: lfrichar | March 10, 2010, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
Belligerence.
Posted by: tierra | March 10, 2010, 12:35 pm 12:35 pm
RP…before you go shooting off your mouth again, I suggest you read a book called “The Vicious Circle”. I believe it was written by a Robert Littell. The reason I tell you to do that is because your post “falls sqaurely” into the “vicious circle mentality” that exists concerning the Middle East. And until the “common, every day middle class person” gets sick of being “sucked into it” – to keep peace from happening…guess what? Peace won’t happen. Netanyehu (sp) is no different than the “neo con” thugs we had in the past administration here. And as long as we all toleerate that mentality, nothing will change. Biden has every right to condemn those settlements because they are meant to continue the “Vicious Circle” of violence and non-peace.
Posted by: CND FOX | March 10, 2010, 1:28 pm 1:28 pm
ISRAEL HAS STALLED PEACE FOR TO LONG. Israel is NOT our friend! Israel has been passing on American secrets to others, including to nations perceived as our most dangerous political and economic competitors;
Spying on our government and industry and stealing American technology;
Ignoring demands and pleas by virtually every U.S. president over the past few decades to end diverse illegal actions that have caused incalculable tragedy, destabilized the region and world, demonstrated ruthless cruelty against entire victim populations, and created escalating enmity toward the United States, whose lobby-promulgated assistance (at least $7 million per day) enables its actions.
Killing American servicemen ( USS LIBERTY ATTACK) and citizens; even while receiving more US tax money than any other nation on earth.
Posted by: William John Webb | March 10, 2010, 4:42 pm 4:42 pm
all the problems that we have with the arab communities caused by isreals
Posted by: dubad | March 17, 2010, 4:53 am 4:53 am
Each and every problem with Arab Countries…its reality..
Posted by: Ilan Ben Menachem | March 18, 2010, 6:19 am 6:19 am
first off jordan owns 75% of the old palestine so why dont they give them land to call there own maybe that will stop the conflict, but it wont cause its really not about getting some land to make a palestanian state its about driving the jews out. why didnt jordan offer them the land before 67 when them and every other arab state tried to take israel and commit genocide. they anexxed the west bank in 67 after they were atacked. thell never give it bace cause it was promised by God. jordan needs to give them land.
Posted by: sonny | March 24, 2010, 4:17 pm 4:17 pm