The meeting follows a visit by Netanyahu during which he was understood to have received a humiliating dressing down from President Barack Obama on Tuesday. In addition, Obama was reported to have presented Netanyahu with a list of 13 demands, which it is hoped will lay the groundwork for peace talks in the Middle East.
Relations between the United States and Israel have been strained since a diplomatic visit by Vice President Joe Biden at the beginning of March—during which time a senior Israeli minister announced plans to build 1,600 new Jewish homes in East Jerusalem. The U.S. has opposed an expansion of settlements in the eastern part of the city, which Palestinians wish to eventually claim as a future capital of an independent state.
Key points of the White House’s demands include ceasing construction of any homes is East Jerusalem, ending military operations in Palestinian autonomous areas, and releasing Palestinian prisoners. There were signs that Netanyahu and his cabinet could resist U.S. demands—driving an unprecedented wedge between the two countries.
“I thank God that I have been given the opportunity to be the minister who approves the construction of thousands of housing units in Jerusalem,” Eli Yishai, Israel’s hawkish interior minister told the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, prior to the cabinet meeting.
Part of Netanyahu’s resistance to the demands could come from a fear that if the settlement plan is abandoned, far-right political coalition partners could withdraw support—causing the administration to collapse.
In Israel, far-right activists have begun hanging posters accusing Obama of anti-Semitism and of being an “agent of the PLO.” Writing in the Israeli Maariv newspaper, columnist Ben Caspit said that the United States had turned its back on Israel.
“[Netanyahu] received in the White House the treatment reserved for the president of Equatorial Guinea,” Caspit wrote. “The U.S. is abandoning us and effectively turning into Europe,” Caspit wrote. “From now on, we are completely alone. The entire world, from one end to another, talks about a Palestinian state inside territory similar to 1967,” wrote Caspit referring to the Six-Day War at the end of which Israel gained control of the currently disputed territories of east Jerusalem, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and the Golan Heights.
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