The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– Netanyahu in Europe –
Netanyahu’s Europe trip was long planned, but came after both Macron and EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini criticised Trump’s decision.
There have also been tensions between Netanyahu and EU officials over Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.
Macron during their talks Sunday called on Netanyahu to freeze settlement building and to show “courage” to help restart peace efforts.
At their press conference, Netanyahu called the White House’s bid to restart peace efforts with the Palestinians a “serious effort”.
Netanyahu was due in Brussels for talks with EU foreign ministers on Monday in what would be the first of their kind with an Israeli premier in 22 years.
Trump’s decision upended decades of US diplomacy and broke with international consensus.
It drew criticism from every other UN Security Council member at an emergency meeting on Friday.
Clashes in the West Bank and along the fence dividing the Gaza Strip from Israel have seen Palestinians burning tyres while hurling stones and firebombs at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds.
Retaliatory air strikes on Gaza in response to rockets killed two Hamas militants on Saturday, while two other Palestinians died in clashes near the border fence the day before.
– US isolated –
Palestinian health officials say more than 1,100 people were wounded by tear gas, rubber bullets, live fire and other means between Thursday and Saturday.
There have been fears of a much larger escalation of violence after Hamas leader Ismail Haniya called for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
In Rome, Pope Francis called Sunday for “wisdom and prudence”, asking world leaders “to avert a new spiral of violence”.
Trump said his defiant move — making good on a 2016 presidential campaign pledge — marked the start of a “new approach” to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But Washington has found itself isolated on the global stage.
Five European countries on the Security Council insisted the new US policy was inconsistent with past resolutions.
The decision was further complicating domestic Palestinian politics, particularly between Abbas’s Fatah and the Islamist Hamas, now at a key stage in a fragile reconciliation process after a decade of bitter enmity.
Hamas, which violently seized Gaza from Fatah in 2007, was due to formally hand back power to the Palestinian Authority on Sunday, but Fatah’s chief negotiator said “obstacles” remained.
