War of Words Between Israel and US Heats Up

The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting to discuss tensions in Jerusalem and Israel’s announcement that it will build more than 1000 new homes in east Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel will “continue to build in our eternal capital” and charged the US with making “making peace more distant” by raising unreasonable expectations for the Palestinians that Israel will ever agree to withdraw from part of Jerusalem. In an interview with The Atlantic, an unnamed senior Obama Administration official reportedly called Netanyahu a “chickenshit”, sparking an angry Israeli response. The US State Department sharply attacked Israel’s announcement that it will build more homes in east Jerusalem, which Israel says is part of its sovereign capital, and Palestinians say must be the capital of a future Palestinian state. The State Department called the “incompatible” and “inconsistent” with Israel’s stated commitment to a two-state solution. The tensions with the US come after Secretary of State John Kerry snubbed Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon by refusing to meet with him.