Obama spits fire at Israel: calls Jerusalem neighborhood "settlement"

Concrete barrier protects residents of Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood from sniper's bullets. The barriers were painted by local artists after children living close by were upset by the barrier

Obama Criticizes New Israeli Move

President Barack Obama says Israel's latest move to build hundreds of new apartments in a [Jerusalem] neighborhood complicates administration efforts to relaunch peace talks and embitters the Palestinians.
(AP)


Livni: No Debate in Israel Over Gilo -Attila Somfalvi

Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni [said] that "there is Israeli consensus on the neighborhood of Gilo."
(Ynet News)


Israel: No Restriction on Jerusalem Building -Herb Keinon & Hilary Leila Krieger

It is highly unusual for the U.S. to criticize construction in Gilo, a neighborhood straddling the Green Line in the city's south and considered noncontroversial among Israelis.

Initially the White House statement was titled a response to "the approval of settlement expansion in Jerusalem," but the version the White House later posted on its Web site does not use the word "settlement."
(Jerusalem Post)


Jewish Neighborhood Had Been Under Palestinian Seige -Ronen Medzini

Gilo's residents remember the Second Intifada at the start of the decade when their homes became a target for attacks from the neighboring Palestinian town of Beit Jala for many months.

At the time, the managers of the American CNN network issued an instruction to stop referring to Gilo as a "settlement" and call it a "Jewish neighborhood."
(Ynet News)


Abbas Has Only Himself to Blame -Shmuel Rosner

[T]he frustrated Obama administration has finally realized that negotiations are unlikely to happen anytime soon.
(New Republic)
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UPDATE:

U.S. Demands Deemed "Strange and Bizarre" -Naama Lanir

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval said: "The demand not to build in Gilo seems strange and even bizarre since it has been inhabited for 30 years....It's not east Jerusalem - Arabs have never lived in Gilo and its houses weren't built on private Arab land."
(Ynet News)
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