Informed Comment: Palestine…Shafir: The End of US Relevance
The Obama Administration, like every other American administration, has failed to convince Israel to freeze the expansion of its settlements on the occupied West Bank. It has belatedly extracted a 10-month long moratorium, but only after Netanyahu has excluded Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and allowed 3,000 homes already under construction to be completed. Not a week seems to pass without another slap to the freeze. On Sunday, it included increased funding for yet more settlements in Israel’s map of national priority zones.
