Clinton: US wants Israel settlement halt 'forever'

[Terri]

By ROBERT BURNS
Associated Press
November 4, 2009

CAIRO (AP) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the U.S stance toward Israeli settlement building to worried Arab allies on Wednesday, saying Washington does not accept the legitimacy of the West Bank enclaves and wants to see their construction halted "forever."

Still, she said an Israeli offer to restrain - but not halt - construction represents "positive movement forward" toward resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Clinton met for an hour with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a hastily arranged stopover in the Egyptian capital to soothe Arab concerns that Washington is backing off demands for an Israeli settlement halt. The fears were sparked on Saturday when Clinton, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at her side in Jerusalem, praised his government's offer as unprecedented.

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[onewildman]

So lets get this straight, it's not OK to demand that Hamas stop bombings or missile attacks, but we can tell Israel what to do. You don't have the right to tell them what to do. The Palestinians have been offered the chance to set up their own state. They have refused each time. I can only speculate that it has to do wanting control of Bethlehem. The Jewish control of Bethlehem predates the Muslim religion by more than a thousand years. Israel has the right to defend it's self against foreign and domestic enemies, just as all nations do.

[Engineer Scott]

The west bank isn't now nor ever has belonged to the so-called Palestinians. It used to belong to Jordan, then known as Trans-Jordan.

Scotty