Obama to meet with Netanyahu on peace talks

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet today with President Obama at the White House while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Europe commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Clinton last week visited the Middle East, where she met with Netanyahu and Arab leaders and made statements on the construction of Israeli settlements that left Arabs concerned that the United States was softening its policy in favor of Israel.

Clinton insisted there was no change, that the United States still wanted a freeze on all settlements but believed that peace talks could come first, allowing Israel to continue to build.

Israel has argued that “natural growth” of the settlement population should be accommodated by new construction at existing settlements while the Palestinians maintain the freeze should be total. The United States has generally backed the Palestinian position on the issue.

Today’s White House meeting could clear the air. It was a last-minute addition to the schedule of Netanyahu, who is in Washington to speak at a forum of Jewish leaders. Obama was supposed to address the same group on Tuesday but canceled to attend the memorial service for the victims of the Ft. Hood shootings in Texas.

-- Michael Muskal
Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal