The Obama administration is in yet another public spat with Israel -- and is all but calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government a bunch of liars.
Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Israel’s announcement of a new settlement located deep in the West Bank goes against promises made by the Jewish state.
“Well we did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement,” Earnest said at his daily press briefing on Wednesday. “I guess when we’re talking about how good friends treat one another, that’s a source of serious concern as well.”
The new settlement will be closer to Jordan than it will be to Israel, Earnest noted, and will fill in a string of outposts that could effectively cut in half the occupied West Bank and ultimately make any peace agreement much more difficult to reach. He reiterated the U.S. position that a two-state solution is in the security interest of both the U.S. and Israel and that “expanding these settlements only makes it harder to negotiate a sustainable and equitable peace agreement in good faith between the two parties.”