WASHINGTON (JTA) — The United States has a letter prepared for Israel guaranteeing security enhancements, but will not add the Jerusalem pledge on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wish list, according to U.S. officials.
A letter setting out incentives for Israel to extend a partial freeze on settlement building was ready to go to Israel over last weekend, but was held up because of Netanyahu’s new demands on Jerusalem, the officials said.
In a briefing Nov. 19, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley stopped just short of saying that the letter was written.
"If there are understandings that need to be codified in writing, we’re fully prepared to do that," he said.
In private conversations with Middle East specialists, however, the U.S. officials are pushing back against claims by Israeli officials that Netanyahu has delayed a Cabinet vote on the U.S. offer because the Obama administration is delaying putting it in writing.
The offer — including 20 F-35 state of the art combat fighters, in addition to 20 F-35s Israel already is slated to receive as part of its existing defense assistance package — is in writing and ready to go, the officials are saying.
It is unclear what exactly Netanyahu is asking, but apparently it has to do with the decades-long U.S. policy of opposition to building in eastern Jerusalem; Netanyahu apparently wants the Jerusalem policy to be more liberal than the steadfast U.S. opposition to building in the West Bank. It is unlikely, however, that the Obama administration will shift the eastern Jerusalem policy.
But Crowley suggested that the administration is frustrated with recent Palestinian demands that Netanyahu expand the prior freeze to include Jerusalem.
"The moratorium that did run for 10 months did not include East Jerusalem," he said in the briefing. "It was something that initially was discounted."
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