Settler lobby ups pressure as Israel PM meets Obama

Pro-settler groups has stepped up pressure on Israel’s premier not to cave in during White House talks to demands that he extend a partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank.

JERUSALEM – Pro-settler groups stepped up pressure on Israel’s premier not to cave in during on Tuesday’s White House talks to demands that he extend a partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, landed in Washington for talks with US President Barack Obama, who was expected to push him to extend the 10-month moratorium which ends on September 26.

Right-wing groups, and many in the premier’s hawkish Likud party, have vowed to begin building in earnest at that point, and are determined to fight any pressure to extend the moratorium.

Deputy parliament speaker Danny Danon of Likud said he expected Netanyahu to tell Obama to “respect the right of Jews to live in Jerusalem.”

“I am sure the prime minister will be very strong today and give a clear message that he was elected on a very clear platform to build in Jerusalem and to build in Judaea and Samaria,” he said, using the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank.

“On September 26, we will finish with the freeze on settlement construction,” he said after touring the controversial Beit Jenohatan Jewish settler building in the heart of the flashpoint Silwan neighbourhood of Arab east Jerusalem.

Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, also of Likud, told army radio that “Israel should not make concessions just to convince the Palestinians to engage in direct negotiations.”

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