The Obama administration and Israel gave no ground Wednesday in their opposing views over Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory despite speculation the two sides might be nearing compromise.
After talks in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman held to long-standing positions ahead of a meeting next week between U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The settlement question is expected to dominate those talks.
While maintaining that the U.S. "commitment to Israel's security is and will remain a cornerstone of our foreign policy," Clinton said the United States continues to want a halt to settlement activity in the West Bank. She said that no informal agreement on the subject that may have been reached between the Bush administration and Israel was valid.
Lieberman, however, at a news conference with Clinton after their meeting at the State Department, held firm to Netanyahu's stance that settlements must be allowed to grow to accommodate population trends, a formulation known as "natural growth." He also said Israel wants settlement understandings reached with Bush to remain in place.
"We really don't have any intention to change the demographic balance in Judea and Samaria," he said, using the Hebrew terms for the West Bank. "We think that in every place around the world babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about absolutely, completely freezing settlements."
Lieberman insisted that "we had some understandings with the previous administration and we (will) try to keep this direction."
Standing beside Lieberman, Clinton politely rejected his comments.
"We want to see a stop to the settlements," Clinton said. "We think that is an important and essential part of pursuing the efforts leading to a comprehensive peace agreement."
Clinton also said the Obama administration did not regard the Bush-era understandings Lieberman cited as "enforceable." The Bush administration had accepted the need for some settlement growth, something the Palestinians rejected at the time.
Clinton and Lieberman's comments seemed to dampen expectations for a compromise when Mitchell meets Netanyahu next week in Paris. On Tuesday, Israel's incoming ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, said he believed there was flexibility for his government and Washington to agree to allow some construction to continue.
The settlement issue is a major obstacle both to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and to an eventual peace deal. Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, along with 180,000 Israelis in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. The Palestinian seek both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future state.
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