Flashback:
Netanyahu on record:
See also:
– Angela Merkel reads Benjamin Netanyahu the riot act over settlement plan (Independent, Oct. 3, 2011):
Israel has infuriated its most reliable West European ally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, by announcing expansion of a Jewish settlement in Jerusalem in defiance of a US-backed warning to both parties in the Middle East conflict to avoid “provocative actions”.
Ms Merkel’s anger, expressed in unequivocal terms in a personal telephone call to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was all the greater because of the prodigious efforts she had made on Israel’s behalf to thwart the Palestinians’ UN recognition bid and persuade Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to re-enter direct negotiations.
Israel yesterday formally accepted – albeit with “some concerns” – the statement by the international Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and the UN calling on both sides to hold direct talks. But the decision to build around 1,000 new homes in the Gilo settlement came as the Palestinian leadership was still deliberating on whether to do so. In the event, the Palestinians have stuck to their line that while there were encouraging elements in the Quartet’s statement, they will not agree to return to negotiations without a settlement freeze. Mr Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa yesterday that “returning to negotiations requires the commitment of Israel to halt settlement activities and to recognise the 1967 borders without any equivocation”.
Read moreAngela Merkel Reads Benjamin Netanyahu The Riot Act Over Settlement Plan