Week two and the US-Israeli spat has calmed. More than a dozen Republican and Democratic Congressmen have pressed the Obama administration to tone down its criticism, following initial outrage of Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to build 1,600 homes in the disputed East Jerusalem territory – announced during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit. Claims that the US-Israel relationship have sunk to the worst level for 35 years were rejected by Hillary Clinton. And in his first public comments on the controversy, President Obama downplayed criticism of the Israeli government over the illegal settlement expansion plan.
But I am with Israel’s ambassador to the US: there is real risk of a lasting rift with the United States. In a new Rasmussen poll, forty-nine percent of Americans asked think Israel should be required to stop constructing settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.
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