State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that "both sides need to take steps if we are to see the necessary conditions for negotiations to continue," while apparently sidestepping a response to a condition Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's gave for extending the building freeze, the
Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Netanyahu said that he would extend the freeze if the Palestinians recognize "the Jewish state as our nation-state," in a speech to the Knesset on Monday.