[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

"In her call, Clinton appeared to link U.S. military support for Israel to
the construction in East Jerusalem"

Bottom line: After the miserable failure of President Obama's appeasement
policy towards Iran - and the passage of his 2009 "deadline" for Iran we now
have a reminder to Israel that the U.S. could threaten Israel in the future
if it finds itself in a policy dispute.

So the warning: the last thing Israel can afford to do is take "risks for
peace" that rely on American support since there is always the possibility
that a future policy dispute will lead to that support being subject to
question.?]

Clinton rebukes Israel over East Jerusalem plans, cites damage to bilateral
ties

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2010; A01
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031202615.html

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rebuked Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday about the state of the U.S.-Israeli
relationship, demanding that Israel take immediate steps to show it is
interested in renewing efforts to achieve a Middle East peace agreement.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley described the nearly 45-minute phone
conversation in unusually undiplomatic terms, signaling that the close
allies are facing their deepest crisis in two decades after the
embarrassment suffered by Vice President Biden this week when Israel
announced during his visit that it plans to build 1,600 housing units in a
disputed area of Jerusalem.

Clinton called Netanyahu "to make clear the United States considered the
announcement a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the
bilateral relationship and counter to the spirit of the vice president's
trip," Crowley said. Clinton, he said, emphasized that "this action had
undermined trust and confidence in
the peace process and in America's interests."

From the start of his tenure, President Obama identified a Middle East peace
deal as critical to U.S. national security, but his efforts have been
hampered by the administration's missteps and the deep mistrust between the
Israelis and the Palestinians. Last fall, he softened his demand for a full
freeze on settlement construction, accepting a limited 10-month moratorium
that did not include the East Jerusalem area where the construction
announced this week is to take place. Clinton at the time hailed the Israeli
plan as "unprecedented."

Special envoy George J. Mitchell has struggled to relaunch peace talks
between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Last week, he got the two sides
to agree to indirect talks, with Mitchell shuttling between them, but the
Israeli announcement has imperiled that development. Rising Palestinian
anger led Israeli forces on Friday to seal off the West Bank and post riot
squads around Jerusalem's Old City and Arab neighborhoods.

U.S. officials were especially furious about the announcement because they
thought they had reached a private understanding with Netanyahu that even
though East Jerusalem was not officially included in the moratorium, he
would prevent any provocative actions there. Its release during Biden's
trip, intended as a fence-mending mission, was seen as another slap.

"The announcement of the settlements on the very day that the vice president
was there was insulting," Clinton told CNN on Friday.

Obama had approved Clinton's call, sitting down with her during their weekly
meeting Thursday to determine the language she would use. "The secretary and
the president worked through together the specific points she would be
making to Prime Minister Netanyahu," deputy national security adviser Ben
Rhodes said. Biden also called Netanyahu on Friday to reinforce the message,
officials said, and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was summoned to a
meeting with Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg.

Some analysts applauded the administration's tough stance, saying it may jar
the right-leaning Israeli government into making gestures to the
Palestinians. But others said Clinton's call risked emboldening Arab and
Palestinian officials to make new demands before talks start, if only so as
not to seem softer than the Americans.

In her call, Clinton appeared to link U.S. military support for Israel to
the construction in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians view as the site for
their future capital. "The secretary said she could not understand how this
happened, particularly in light of the United States' strong commitment to
Israel's security," Crowley said. "She made clear that the Israeli
government needed to demonstrate, not just through words but through
specific actions, that they are committed to this relationship and to the
peace process."

U.S. officials said Clinton made specific requests of Netanyahu to get the
peace process back on track and to repair the damage to the relationship.
They declined to identify the steps she demanded or to spell out possible
consequences. Officials noted the length of the call -- such diplomatic
conversations usually last about 10 minutes -- and said Clinton did most of
the talking.

"We think the burden is on the Israelis to do something that could restore
confidence in the process and to restore confidence in the relationship with
the United States," said a senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

Clinton's blunt message to Netanyahu came three days after Biden condemned
the plans while in Israel. Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the
announcement -- he said he did not know it was coming -- but has not taken
steps to reverse the action. U.S. officials said they found his response
inadequate, which in part prompted Clinton's call.

Crowley's statement was issued after the Sabbath started in Israel, and
there was no immediate comment from the government there.

Relations with Israel have been strained almost since the start of the Obama
administration. Now they have plunged to their lowest ebb since the
administration of George H.W. Bush.

Then, as now, the two countries quarreled over Israeli settlement expansion
in the occupied Palestinian territories. In 1990, then-Secretary of State
James A. Baker III publicly gave out the phone number of the White House
switchboard and told the Israelis, "When you're serious about peace, call
us."

The future of Jerusalem is a major point of dispute in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with both sides claiming it as their capital.
Israel captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 war and subsequently annexed
and populated it in a move not recognized by the international community.

Netanyahu's fragile coalition government includes members who oppose giving
up any part of the city. The housing units announced this week would be
added to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood called Ramat Shlomo, making
it politically difficult for the prime minister to roll back the action.

The "quartet" of Middle East peace mediators -- the United States, the
European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- on Friday condemned the
construction announcement and said it would "take full stock of the
situation" at a previously scheduled meeting in Moscow next week.