Diplomatic crises, but economic prosperity.

Leslie Susser

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

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Top: Theresa McDermott, an Edinburgh, Scotland, postal worker who was a member of the Free Gaza flotilla, spoke at a

Boycott Israel demonstration in Edinburgh, June 5. Above left: A visit to Israel in March by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden

was marred by Israel's announcement that it would build 1,600 new housing units in a Jewish neighborhood in eastern

Jerusalem. Above right: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama met in the Oval

Office at the White House July 6.

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or Israel, the Jewish year 5770 was
characterized by ups and downs
in relations with the United
States, a virtual stalemate in Middle East
peacemaking and growing international
alienation.
Last November, after months of intense
U.S. pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu declared a temporary freeze
on new construction building in West
Bank settlements — a move designed to
create conditions for a renewal of peace
talks with the Palestinians. But the freeze
was only for 10 months, did not include
some 3,000 units already started and
did not apply to construction in eastern
Jerusalem.
The Palestinians, convinced that
President Obama would exert even heavier
pressure on Israel on the core issues of the
dispute — borders, Jerusalem, Palestinian
refugees and the nature of a future
Palestinian state — without their having
to negotiate, highlighted the issues and
rejected calls to return to the peace table.
As a compromise, special U.S. peace
envoy George Mitchell proposed indirect
negotiations under U.S. auspices. By early
March, both sides had agreed to "proxim-
ity talks," with Mitchell shuttling between
Jerusalem and Ramallah. U.S. Vice
President Joe Biden traveled to the region
to announce the breakthrough, but during
his visit an Israeli Interior Ministry plan-
ning committee approved plans for 1,600
new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a
Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem on the
east side of the pre-1967 border — what
most of the world still considers the West
Bank.
The move prompted the Palestinians to
retract their agreement to participate in
proximity talks and infuriated the Obama
administration. U.S. officials blamed Israel

