East Jerusalem

Setting the stage for another potential clash with the Obama administration, Israel said Monday that it would build an additional 1,300 homes on disputed land in East Jerusalem. The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the United States to meet with administration officials in an attempt to revive stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. He met Sunday with Vice President Joe Biden and is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, both of whom have urged Netanyahu to restrain from new construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank in order to draw Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

With a fire extinguisher in his hand and a cellphone pressed to his ear, principal Sameeh abu Rameelh battled an electrical fire in his Jerusalem high school's computer lab while pleading with the fire department to come to his aid. But when the emergency dispatcher heard that the school was in Kafr Aqab, separated from the rest of Jerusalem by a 36-foot-high concrete wall, he told Abu Rameelh that firetrucks wouldn't cross Israel's separation barrier...

When East Jerusalem teachers ask students to open their history books these days, pupils are wondering: Which one? Two sets of textbooks are vying for the formative minds of thousands of Palestinian students in Arabic-language schools in East Jerusalem. One was written by the Palestinian Authority, and the other is a revised version reprinted by Israeli authorities. It's a textbook war that underscores the long-running battle of narratives in the Mideast conflict, where the fight over the future is often rooted in understanding of the past, and schoolbooks can play a critical role.

Palestinian leaders voiced outrage Tuesday over a new report that Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank rose 20% last year. The report released by the Peace Now group also says that building on East Jerusalem land seized during the 1967 Middle East War was at the highest level in a decade. The study by the Israeli group, which is opposed to settlement construction, found that Israel began construction on more than 1,850 West Bank units in 2011, up from 1,550 in 2010. During much of 2010, Israel observed a partial moratorium on new West Bank construction, which reduced building starts that year.

A day after trying to ease tensions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected U.S. demands to end the construction of new housing units in disputed East Jerusalem, leaving the two allies in the middle of an increasingly uncomfortable diplomatic feud. The United States wants Netanyahu to order a halt to the construction and make a gesture to Palestinians that could help lead to peace negotiations. But Netanyahu, arguing that construction of housing units on land occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East War poses no harm to Palestinians, showed no signs of acquiescing to U.S. demands.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clashed publicly with President Obama on Tuesday over Israeli construction in disputed East Jerusalem, throwing a teetering Mideast peace effort deeper in doubt. Responding to criticism from Obama, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone in commenting on plans to build 1,300 more Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem, saying his government had never agreed to limit construction in the city. "Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is the capital of the state of Israel," Netanyahu said in a statement.

The Jerusalem City Council on Monday approved a divisive redevelopment plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, potentially reigniting a debate over Israeli construction on land it seized in 1967. The approval threatens to renew friction between Israel and the Obama administration just as the former is battling a surge of international pressure over its policies in the Gaza Strip. Obama has repeatedly asked Israel to refrain from building new projects in Arab-dominated neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, warning against any "provocations" that might derail American-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir today said he will not compromise on his demand for all Jerusalem, including predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem, to remain Israel's capital just to give a positive answer to U.S. proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. Shamir's statement, in a nationally broadcast speech to leaders of his right-wing Likud bloc, lessened the already remote chance that Likud's coalition with the center-left Labor Party could be reconstructed.

Calling Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem indisputable, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected U.S. demands to stop plans to build 20 Jewish-owned apartments in the eastern part of the city that Palestinians regard as key to their future state.

Jerusalem's new mayor said Saturday that he favors more Jewish settlements in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem to prevent the city's division in a peace agreement with Palestinians. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, seized by Israel from Jordan in 1967, as the capital of their future state. The city's future will be negotiated later in talks on the final status of Israeli-occupied territories.

Last week we wrote about California's decision to require teachers and textbooks to include positive messages about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in their lessons. We opposed that law — not because we think schools shouldn't teach about the contributions of people of all sexual orientations (they should!), but because we're concerned about the continuing politicization of California's classrooms. Is it really necessary to point out that politicians aren't the best arbiters of what should be taught to schoolchildren?

When East Jerusalem teachers ask students to open their history books these days, pupils are wondering: Which one? Two sets of textbooks are vying for the formative minds of thousands of Palestinian students in Arabic-language schools in East Jerusalem. One was written by the Palestinian Authority, and the other is a revised version reprinted by Israeli authorities. It's a textbook war that underscores the long-running battle of narratives in the Mideast conflict, where the fight over the future is often rooted in understanding of the past, and schoolbooks can play a critical role.

Israel is moving forward with another large housing project on territory it seized during the 1967 Mideast war, unveiling plans to build 2,610 units in what critics say would be the first entirely new development on disputed Jerusalem land in 14 years. The planned project, to be called Givat Hamatos, would expand the footprint of Jewish housing development into new areas, nearly cutting off Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem from West Bank communities. If built, the project would make it harder to create a Palestinian state with contiguous borders and a capital in East Jerusalem, opponents say. "This one is really bad," said Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, the Israeli anti-settlement group.

Uan Rasey Trumpet player in 'Chinatown' and other films Uan Rasey, 90, a first-call trumpet player for MGM and other studio orchestras best known for his evocative solo in Roman Polanski's 1974 film "Chinatown," died Sept. 26 at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center, said his grandson Tristan Verstraeten. The Studio City resident hadheart problems. Besides soloing in composerJerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score for "Chinatown," Rasey played trumpet for many other film soundtracks, including "An American in Paris," "Ben-Hur," "Bye Bye Birdie," "Cleopatra," "Gigi," "How the West Was Won," "My Fair Lady," "Singin' in the Rain," "Spartacus" and "West Side Story.

Russia's strongman Re "Putin's back, unfortunately," Editorial, Sept. 28 Vladimir Putin's right to run for a third term as president of Russia is highly questionable. Such an idea would have never visited Bill Clinton, since the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says: "No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. " When a group of legal scholars was preparing a draft of the Russian Constitution adopted in 1993, they were looking at the 22nd Amendment as an example.

Israel gave preliminary approval Tuesday to the construction of about 1,100 new housing units in East Jerusalem, brushing aside pleas from U.S. and European diplomats to delay the controversial project as they attempt to restart peace talks. The Interior Ministry's green light will clear the way for a significant expansion of the Jewish development of Gilo, on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War. Critics said the move is a setback for the Mideast "quartet" —the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia — which last week issued a call for Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct talks within the next month.

Housing Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday outlined wide-ranging plans to house thousands of Jews in Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Sharon, confirming persistent newspaper reports and official leaks, named four Arab neighborhoods where the government is acquiring land and planning housing for Jews.

The Palestinians on Friday plan to ask the United Nations to admit them as a member nation. Here are answers to some of the questions arising from their bid. Why are the Palestinians turning to the United Nations and what do they hope to achieve? After nearly 20 years of failed peace talks, the Palestinians say they hope their application for U.N. membership will put the Mideast conflict back atop the international agenda, break the deadlock in U.S.-brokered negotiations by increasing pressure on Israel and give their drive for statehood a boost.

With world leaders in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Republican presidential hopefuls used the opportunity Tuesday to blame President Obama for the most contentious issues looming over the gathering, saying he had emboldened the Palestinians to push for statehood and endangered Israel by kowtowing to Iran, Muslim militants, and, in the words of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, "the orchestrators of terrorism. " Perry, speaking at a Manhattan hotel, made a pitch to Jewish voters by calling for Jerusalem — including East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians envision as the capital of their future state — to be the undisputed territory of Israel.