Netanyahu Seeks to Defuse Obama Spat with Action on Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is trying to reset Israel’s relations with the White House. His decision to release hundreds of millions of dollars his government withheld from the Palestinians was a bid to lower the flames, a confidant said.

Israel also agreed to give greater freedom of movement to Palestinians on its roads, enable a new West Bank city to receive its first residents and increase the flow of water to Gaza.

“We would like to do what we can to remove the unnecessary hindrances in our relationship with the U.S.,” Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Netanyahu and former ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview. An Israeli government official confirmed that repairing relations was a factor in decisions concerning the Palestinians.

“Neither side wants to have an open conflict, but Netanyahu will certainly continue to criticize the Iran talks and there isn’t much he can deliver on the actual peace process,” said Robbie Sabel, a former Israeli diplomat and professor of international law at Hebrew University in Yerushalayim.

{Matzav.com Israel}