Page 21 - Settlement Construction News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Too much. whether it's on the palestinian side, hung up on settlement construction, hung up that the palestinian leadership at the moment in gaza includes a terrorist group, hamas. the president trying to create some new climate for peace without resolving the many obstacles to peace. one of the big questions during this whole visit has been, is he shoulder to shoulder with prime minister benjamin netanyahu on iran? you can be sure, as the prime minister sees the president later today, he will be very happy with what the president said in the speech about iran, saying that he has the sense of ...

Earlier, mr. obama visited the west bank, meeting with palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas. mr. obama expressed the need for direct talks. he criticized israeli settlement activity in the west bank, but he didn't back the palestinian demand for israel to immediately halt west bank's settlement construction as a prerequisite. he said the core issues are palestinian sovereignty, and israeli security. >> if we solve those two problems, the settlement problem will be solved. >> just hours before the president's speech, two rockets fired from gaza landed in southern israel, underscoring t...

>> they talk about settlement activity on the west bank. >> in the past, we ripped up settlements, 21 settlements to advance the peace process, didn't get peace, got rockets. we froze settlement construction in the west bank for ten months to get the palestinians back to the table. they have a lot of preconditions, not just settlements. we have no preconditions. a lot of things we asked the palestinians to do but don't form them as preconditions. we think the only way to resolve this conflict is through direct negotiation. >> one final question. he is going to make a major speech, the presiden...

To advance the peace process. we didn't get peace. we got rockets rained down on us. we froze settlement construction on the west bank for ten months to get the palestinians back to the table. the palestinians have a lot of preconditions. it is not just settlements. we have no preconditions. we have a lot of things we ask the palestinians to do but we don't form them as preconditions. we think the only way to resolve this conflict is through direct negotiations. >> one final question. he is going to make a major speech, the president, at the jerusalem convention center but not before the parli...

Ambassadors to their country to condemn this move and france and england have said there is an appetite to disapprove of israel right now. what's happening to the tense situation there? >> the israeli response of calling for a settlement construction is a response that's viewed negatively across the international community by the united states as well as in many parts of israel itself. so it's a move intended to play to the base of benjamin netanyahu's core constituency. it doesn't help build confidence in a diplomatic process. this reiterates why the united states does need to be involved and...