Israel has reportedly once again told the United States it will not freeze construction in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in order to try to jumpstart talks with the Palestinian Authority.
U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro allegedly made the request during a meeting Thursday morning with Interior Minister Eli Yishai, according to a report broadcast by IDF Army Radio.
However, the conversation apparently took place without the knowledge of the Prime Minister's Office. When asked, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev told Arutz Sheva that his office had not been notified, and he "had not heard anything about this."
Shapiro reportedly couched the request in terms of its being a "goodwill gesture" -- however, it has consistently been framed by the PA as a precondition for any return to the negotiating table.
Yishai told the American ambassador that Israel would not agree to any freeze, noting that no Israeli government had given in to PA demands to freeze settlements in the past, except for Netanyahu's ten month freeze, nor is there any reason do so now.
Netanyahu gave in to US demands last year, freezing construction for ten months at considerable persoanl political cost, while Abbas waited till the freeze was almost over to come to the negotiation table. There, he immediately demanded an extension of the freeze, and refused to continue negotiations when he was turned down.
Shapiro, for his part, reiterated the U.S. commitment to exercise its veto in the U.N. Security Council against the Palestinian Authority's attempt to circumvent negotiations by applying for United Nations membership and recognition as an independent sovereign nation.