Today, a friend was coming from Jerusalem to Ramallah, via the Qalandia checkpoint, and got stuck again in the middle as Israeli forces fired all they had at Palestinian demonstrators.
She said that when Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades very near her car, the airbags reacted, the way they should in a major crash — they puffed or blew up. She said she was bruised, and shocked. And she cannot drive her car until the airbags are repaired.
Meanwhile, the U.S. White House says that there has been no new high-level contact with the Israeli leadership … U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Israeli Prime Minister almost a week ago to express American displeasure with the Israeli government announcement about the advancement in planning for 1,600 new housing units in the Jewish settlement of Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem, very near the Palestinian village of Shuafat. State Department spokesmen have said that the U.S. is waiting for a response from Israel, but there apparently has been none so far. After Clinton’s phone call, Netanyahu did have a subsequent long and late-night phone call with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden — but apparently still not the response the U.S. is looking for…
UPDATE: The U.S. State Department piled it on with their briefing in Washington today (Thursday 18 March 2010) — here is an excerpt of the exchange between Gordon Duguid, Acting Deputy Department Spokesman, answering questions from journalists:
“QUESTION: All right. Okay. Thanks. Moving on to the Middle East, has the Secretary heard from Prime Minister Netanyahu yet?
MR. DUGUID: I believe the Secretary, you may have seen, had a press conference in Moscow just over an hour ago –
QUESTION: She didn’t answer the question.
MR. DUGUID: — and she has said that when we have something to say on the particular communication with Prime Minister Netanyahu, that we’ll let you know. As to my knowledge, just before coming in here, I did not have any word that a communication had been received. But when we do have one, we will let you know.”
UPDATE TWO: Netanyahu called Clinton! They agreed to meet in Washington next week…
AP has just reported that “Netanyahu called Clinton on Thursday. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declined to provide details of the conversation, which he described as the Israeli prime minister’s response to Clinton’s call last week in which she harshly criticized Israel’s announcement of additional Jewish settlement housing in east Jerusalem. ‘They discussed specific actions that might be taken to improve the atmosphere for progress toward peace’, the department said in a statement released by Clinton’s traveling party. Crowley said U.S. officials will review Netanyahu’s response and ‘continue our discussions with both sides to keep proximity talks moving forward’. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister clarified Israeli policy in the call with Clinton and suggested ‘mutual confidence-building measures’ by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Netanyahu planned to be in Washington next week for the annual gathering of the premier pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Clinton was scheduled to speak to the group on Monday. Crowley said Mitchell will fly to the Mideast this weekend and hold separate talks with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas … In public comments Thursday while in Moscow for talks on a range of international issues, Clinton appeared to be seeking to calm U.S. relations with Israel, saying the U.S. has not changed its approach to championing an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Last week Clinton denounced the Israeli housing announcement. The Israeli move was seen by the Obama administration as an insult and a repudiation of U.S. efforts to get Israel to halt construction of additional Jewish settlements. ‘Our goals remain the same’, Clinton said Thursday during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. ‘It is to relaunch negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians on a path that will lead to a two-state solution. Nothing has happened that in any way affects our commitment to pursuing that’.” This AP report can be read in full here.