RICHARD BOUDREAUX, WASHINGTON AND JERUSALEM — President Obama and top Israeli officials staked out sharply opposing positions over the explosive issue of Jewish settlements Thursday, propelling a rare dispute between the two close allies into full public view just days before the U.S. leader is due to deliver a long-awaited address in Egypt to the world's Muslims.
Speaking after a White House meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama reiterated that he had been "very clear about the need to stop building settlements, to stop building outposts" on Palestinian territory.
Only hours earlier, the Israeli government said it would continue to allow some growth in the settler communities in the West Bank.
The exchange underscored the unusually hard-line position Obama has taken publicly with Israel early in his administration. Most U.S. presidents, aware of the political sensitivity, have worked hard to keep disagreements out of sight, when they existed.
The back and forth also added a contentious note to the start of a grueling period of Middle East peace talks that the White House has pledged to aggressively pursue. And it comes as Obama prepares his speech scheduled for next week that is aimed at repairing U.S. ties with the Muslim world.
The verbal disagreement with Israel defied expectations of U.S. and Israeli officials, as well as many analysts, who had predicted that the new American president and the newer conservative Israeli prime minister would seek a pragmatic way to avoid public clashes.
But since Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House 11 days ago, the contrasts have steadily risen in public view.
Obama believes an Israeli settlement freeze would elicit concessions from moderate Arab states, reinvigorating peace negotiations.
In staff-level talks that continue almost daily, Israeli officials have balked.
Meeting with Abbas, Obama re-emphasized his conviction regarding the settlements and the need for a Palestinian state. The president repeated his view, which many Israelis also dispute, that progress on Palestinian-Israeli peace can ease many other regional problems.
"I have insisted that this is a critical issue to deal with, in part because it is in the United States' interest to achieve peace," Obama said. "The absence of peace between Palestinians and Israelis is an impediment to a whole host of other areas of increased cooperation and more stable security for people in the region as well as the United States. And so I want to see progress made, and we will work very aggressively to achieve it."
