By Tobias Buck in Jerusalem and Daniel Dombey in Washington
Published: March 9 2010 22:22 | Last updated: March 10 2010 02:38
Israel on Tuesday revealed plans to build a further 1,600 housing units in a Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, a move Washington was quick to condemn for its impact on US-backed peace talks. The Israeli decision coincided with a visit by Joe Biden, the US vice-president and the country’s most senior official to travel to Israel since Barack Obama took office last year. It also came a day after the Palestinian Authority dropped opposition to a new round of indirect peace talks with Israel – a promise that may be in doubt.
“The substance and timing of the announcement … is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now,” Mr Biden said in condemning Israel’s move. “We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them.”
If Biden & co. are substantively upset and not so obviously playing a part then they’d take measures to register that displeasure, such as finally rescinding the tax-exempt status of land-grabbing front groups like, “American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, a nonprofit organization that sends millions of shekels worth of donations to Israel every year for clearly political purposes, such as buying Arab properties in East Jerusalem..” [“U.S. group invests tax-free millions in East Jerusalem land“, Uri Blau, Haaretz, 17 August 2009]
Related:
The Diane Rehm Show 1/11/2010
The IRS and Illegal Settlements
IRmep research director Grant F. Smith briefed IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman on National Public Radio about the US Treasury Department’s failure to regulate American charities laundering funds into illegal West Bank settlements.