Liberman: Israel won't stop building in Jerusalem

Ex-FM: While there are disagreements with the US over settlement construction, J'lem maintains tight relations with Washington.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Avigdor Liberman 370 (photo credit: Yossi Zamir)
Avigdor Liberman 370
(photo credit: Yossi Zamir)
Former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman on Saturday repeated statements made by his political partner Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and vowed that Israel will not stop building in Jerusalem.
Liberman also commented on recent criticism reportedly made by US President Barack Obama who said Israel "doesn't know what its own best interests are" regarding Jerusalem's advancement of new settlement plans.
The former foreign minister asserted that while there are disagreements between the two countries about settlement building in east Jerusalem, Israel and the United States still collaborate in many areas.
"Not you nor I heard Obama [make these comments], we read Jeff Goldberg. This is a journalist with a clear agenda," Liberman said at a cultural event in Beersheba. "It is okay for friends to have disagreements," he added.
The Yisrael Beytenu leader insisted he supports Netanyahu's call on the Palestinians to negotiate without preconditions and that the prime minister's Bar-Ilan speech, that called for a two-state solution, is still valid.
"The only ones who refuse peace are the Palestinians," Liberman said.
On Friday, Palestinian activists erected a new tent outpost northwest of Jerusalem in an area between Beit Iksa and Lifta, after the IDF bulldozed another encampment that was erected by Palestinians on an undeveloped area in the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, known as E1.
The activists had been targeting E1 to protest Prime Minister Netanyahu’s November 30 decision to advance plans to build 3,500 Jewish homes on the site.