Daybreak: U.S. Gives Up on Freeze Deal
Plus Bibi slams rabbis’ ruling, and more in the news
December 08, 2010
Secretary of State Clinton yesterday.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Image)
• The United States admitted failure in persuading Israel to an additional 90-day construction freeze to get direct talks up again and the likely futility of talks at this point. [NYT]
• Next? Possibly more “proximity talks,” that is, U.S.-mediated indirect negotiations. Administration officials are meeting with both sides this week. [Haaretz]
• A top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas broadly questioned the United States’s ability to broker peace. [JPost]
• On the other hand, Iran scheduled further nuclear talks with world powers, to be held next month in Istanbul. [NYT]
• Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned several Israeli municipal rabbis’ rulings that Jews may only rent to other Jews (which is to say, they may not rent to Arabs). [JTA]
• Foreign Minister Lieberman’s people are starting something with Netanyahu’s people over the government’s recent endeavors to re-start Turkish diplomatic relations, possibly by apologizing, in some form, for the flotilla incident. [Haaretz]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
