Barak: U.S. Put Settlement Freeze on Hold To Deal With WikiLeaks
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that contacts with the United States over a renewed moratorium on West Bank construction had been frozen in the wake of the WikiLeaks crisis and the tensions between North and South Korea.
“We have not reached understanding with the United States on how to resume the construction freeze,” Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “The negotiations with the Palestinians are of utmost priority for Israel and we must aspire to make them happen.”
Barak said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had reached a gentlemen’s agreement in their discussions over trading a freeze for certain American guarantees, adding that a deal was not yet “closed” and that the approval of Congress was still needed.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
