Benjamin Netanyahu Rebukes David Cameron for Criticizing Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has long counted his British counterpart, David Cameron, as a staunch friend in a shrinking world of dependable allies.Yet that did not prevent Mr. Netanyahu from responding sharply on Thursday to Mr. Cameron’s stinging assertion that he found Israel’s “effective encirclement” of East Jerusalem and the extent of its construction in that contested territory “genuinely shocking.”“My friend David Cameron, who is undoubtedly a friend of Israel, seems to have forgotten a few basic facts about Jerusalem,” Mr. Netanyahu retorted in remarks delivered in time for the main evening news broadcasts.Continue reading the main storyRELATED COVERAGELetter From the Middle East: A Forceful Voice in Defense of Israel’s Image AbroadFEB. 9, 2016Reporters Notebook: West Bank Settlers’ Listings on Airbnb Draw Palestinian AngerFEB. 7, 2016Mennonites and Episcopalians Say No, for Now, to Israel DivestmentJULY 2, 2015Listening Post: Countering Israel Boycotts, With GlamourFEB. 28, 2014“Only Israeli sovereignty” he said, prevented the Islamic State “and Hamas from igniting the holy sites, as they are doing all over the Middle East. Only Israeli sovereignty guarantees the Arab residents of the city roads, clinics, employment and all the other trappings of normal life that their brethren do not enjoy elsewhere in the Middle East,” he added.Mr. Netanyahu spoke in Hebrew at a gathering of activists from his conservative Likud Party in the southern town of Ofakim.

 

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