Settlement Freeze Focus Dominates Netanyahu's European Tour

In his series of meetings with leaders in Europe this week, Benjamin Netanyahu was faced with one issue time and again-the need to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank.

In Netanyahu's meeting with Gordon Brown on Tuesday, Brown called settlement construction an obstacle to a two state solution, saying that a freeze would likely open the door to normalization measures by Arab states.

The next day, Netanyahu met US Special Envoy George Mitchell in London to discuss an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction that might provide for a re-launching of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. 

Following the meeting, Israeli reports suggested that the United States had conceded that a settlement freeze would not apply to East Jerusalem. But State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley denied those reports saying:

...characteristic of difficult discussions, you're seeing- you're hearing a lot of noise coming from a lot of different directions... There's a lot of posturing that's going on. I think what is important here is that Senator Mitchell... continues to work with the parties. Our objective is to get them vested in formal negotiations. And in those formal negotiations, we will tackle the hard issues that we know exist, and get not only to the finish line, but get across the finish line.

On Thursday, Netanyahu met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, like Brown and Mitchell, stressed a settlement freeze.

From Ma'ariv:

I believe that progress regarding the settlements and prohibiting additional construction in the settlements is an important milestone in order to restart the peace process, Merkel said. She added that despite the government's coalition problems, a construction freeze in the settlements is of supreme importance, and time is running out.