Talks due
to last one hour extended into two when German President Joachim Gauck met with
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Most of their time was spent
on Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank.
Gauck used
the meeting with Netanyahu to express his unease with Israel's controversial
settlement policy.
"Germany
and Europe would be thankful for any sign on the settlement policy," Gauck
said, according to a spokesman.
"Who
benefits from this policy?" he asked Netanyahu, pointing out that it made
a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible.
Gauck said
he sees the issue as a key to rejuvenating the Middle East peace process. But
Israeli's premier rejected that notion. He said the conflict could only be
resolved through recognition of Israel.
'At
Israel's side'
Gauck was
careful to stress the importance of Germany's relationship with Israel, saying
that criticism did not endanger the friendship but was merely part of an honest
discussion, his spokesman said. "Germany stands in solidarity at Israel's
side," Gauck said.
Gauck's
foreign trips are watched carefully in Berlin, where policymakers view him as
being unpredictable. The president will have piqued their interest by avoiding
calling Israel's existence Germany's "reason of state" as Chancellor
Angela Merkel had done in a 2008 address to the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
Netanyahu
refused to extend a moratorium on the building of new settlements in the West
Bank in 2010, and their erection by Jewish settlers has gathered pace since
then.
ncy/rc (AFP, dpa)
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