Speaking during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem Saturday, 31 October, visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked that Israel was making “unprecedented concessions” on the issue of settlements. “What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy on settlements is unprecedented in the context of negotiations.”

She also claimed that a freeze on settlement building had not been a precondition for peace talks in the past. Clinton reiterated the same old platitudes about America’s commitment to a “comprehensive peace agreement” and the need for the resumption of peace talks as soon as possible. Netanyahu, visibly pleased by Clinton’s remarks, said “we think we should sit around that negotiating table right away.” He termed Palestinian insistence on a settlement expansion freeze a “new Palestinian policy that doesn’t advance peace”.