Our Drunken President throws Israel under the bus empowering terrosists
Harry Dope
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinians mounted violent protests in
Jerusalem on Tuesday and President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy
canceled plans to return to the region as a U.S.-Israeli crisis over
Jewish settlement plans deepened.
Hundreds of rock-throwing Palestinians clashed with police in several
locations in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war along
with the West Bank. Police responded with teargas and rubber bullets.
"We have come to throw stones because that's all we have and the
situation in Jerusalem is dangerous," one protester said in a
confrontation at an Israeli military checkpoint, reminiscent of the
early days of a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.
Medical officials said at least 40 Palestinians were treated in
hospitals in the most serious flare-up in the holy city in months.
Police said two policemen were hurt.
The violence was another challenge to U.S. efforts to revive Israeli-
Palestinian peace talks, which were suspended in December 2008 but had
looked set to resume in the form of indirect negotiations under U.S.
mediation.
Israel angered Palestinians and touched off a feud with Washington by
announcing plans, during a visit last week by U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden, to build 1,600 homes for Jews in a part of the occupied West
Bank it annexed to Jerusalem.
The dispute, described by Israel's ambassador to Washington described
as a crisis of historic proportions in traditionally close U.S.-
Israeli relations, showed no signs of abating.
U.S. envoy George Mitchell canceled plans to return to the region on
Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not halt
construction in what he termed Jerusalem neighborhoods, disputed areas
filled with Israeli apartment blocs in and near the city's eastern
sectors.
Officials in Washington said they were still waiting for Israel's
formal response to demands from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Israeli media reports said Clinton, who termed the announcement of the
construction plan an insult, had asked for it to be scrapped and for
Israel to agree to discuss core statehood issues with the
Palestinians.
"EXPLOSIVE SITUATION"
"There is an explosive situation. There are Netanyahu's policies,
which are tantamount to pouring oil on fire," said Palestinian chief
negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Hamas, an Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, said in a
statement that Palestinians should "regard Tuesday as a day of rage
against the occupation's (Israel's) procedures in Jerusalem against al-
Aqsa mosque".
Hamas leaders cited the renovation of the Hurva synagogue, in the
Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's walled Old City, saying the restoration
work was an Israeli plot to demolish al-Aqsa, some 400 meters (yards)
away.
Israel has denied the allegation and the U.S. State Department,
appealing for calm, voiced concern at what it described as Palestinian
incitement.
Citing biblical and historical links, Israel sees all of Jerusalem as
its capital, a claim not recognized internationally. The Palestinians
want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
Some 500,000 Jews and 2.6 million Palestinians live in the occupied
West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinians say Jewish settlements will deny them a viable state and
Washington has cautioned both sides against moves that could prejudge
the outcome of peace talks.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and
Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Noah Barkin)