Jerusalem Expansion Plan Threatens Peace Talks

JERUSALEM (Dec. 28) -- Israel announced Monday that it will build almost 700 new homes in parts of Jerusalem that lie beyond the borders established by the 1967 Mideast war.

The plan already has angered Palestinians and is likely to lead to U.S. condemnation. One unnamed U.S. official told The Associated Press that "unilateral actions make it harder for people to get back together at the (negotiating) table, and that's what our goals are."

A Palestinian official was more blunt.

"The Israeli government proves every day that it is not ready for peace," Nabil Abu Rdainah told the Reuters news agency.

But Israeli housing minister Ariel Atias said the construction does not violate Israel's earlier agreement to freeze settlement expansion in the West Bank, a move made to help restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He said the new building is needed to alleviate a housing shortage in Jerusalem.

"The Israeli government has been willing to demonstrate great flexibility when it comes to construction in the West Bank, but we've made a clear distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said in an interview. "Jerusalem is our capital and will stay as such."

Palestinians consider East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and unilaterally annexed, to be the future capital of a Palestinian state. Israel maintains that East Jerusalem will remain part of Israel's capital.

Last month, Israel announced it would build 900 homes in Gilo in south Jerusalem, sparking tensions with the Obama administration. Two of the neighborhoods are near the West Bank town of Ramallah, and the third abuts Bethlehem. About 250,000 Israelis already live in East Jerusalem, along with 300,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Some Israeli analysts said the announcement of new construction is meant to torpedo any resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"This is a clear indication of (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's picking a fight with the Obama administration," said Dani Seidemann, a dovish lawyer who specializes in land use in Jerusalem. "It makes it very difficult for Palestinians or anyone in the Arab world to resume negotiations with Israel without looking complicit in giving away East Jerusalem."

Regev denied that the announcement of the new homes would cause tensions with the Obama administration.

"We've got open channels with the Obama administration with total transparency," he said. "There are no surprises."

Netanyahu said Monday that the "time is ripe" for renewing peace negotiations with the Palestinians, adding that he planned to raise the issue with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during his visit to Cairo this week.

"I hope we have reached the time to renew the peace process," Netanyahu told diplomats gathered at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem. "The time for excuses is over. Now is the time for action."

His comments came after a weekend of Israeli-Palestinian violence. On Saturday, Israeli undercover troops killed three Palestinians in the West Bank who they said were responsible for the shooting death of a Jewish settler last week. Also on Saturday, Israeli ground and air fire killed three Palestinians near the Israeli border with Gaza. Israel said the men were trying to infiltrate into Israel; Hamas officials said they were gathering scrap metal in a former industrial zone.