US vice-president appeals to Israel after Palestinians walk out over decision to build new homes in Jewish settlement

The US vice-president, Joe Biden, today attempted to salvage the Middle East peace talks after the Palestinians announced they were pulling out of a new round of indirect negotiations before they had begun.

The Palestinian move was in protest against Israel’s decision to build hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

The withdrawal from negotiations, announced in Cairo by Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, represents a major setback to months of diplomacy by the US administration prior to Biden’s visit to the region.

The US vice-president said an agreement would be “profoundly” in Israel’s interests and appealed to the Israeli government to make a serious attempt to reach peace with the Palestinians.

“The most important thing is for these talks to go forward, and go forward promptly, and go forward in good faith,” he said in a speech at Tel Aviv University.

“We can’t delay, because when progress is postponed, extremists exploit our differences.”

After strongly condemning the Israeli settlement expansion earlier in the week, Biden used today’s speech to praise the country, saying the US had “no better friend”.

But he stressed the need to end the conflict to restore to the Palestinians “the fundamental dignity and self-respect that their current predicament denies them”.

Yesterday, Moussa said he had been told by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, that even the low-key process of “proximity talks” could not begin unless Israel stopped expanding its settlements.

“The Palestinian side is not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances,” Moussa said.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have not held direct negotiations since Israel’s war in Gaza last year.

On Monday, the White House won agreement from the two sides to begin the indirect talks, hoping they would lead to face-to-face meetings.

The Palestinians had insisted there would be no direct talks unless Israel halted all settlement expansion, in line with the demands of the US administration and the “road map”, which remains the framework of peace talks.

But the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, leading a rightwing coalition government, offered only a temporary and partial curb to new building.

Then on Tuesday – hours after Biden met Israeli leaders – the Israeli interior ministry announced approval for 1,600 new apartments in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

All settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.

Israel’s opposition Kadima party said it planned a no-confidence vote in the prime minister in parliament for “destroying” the Biden visit.

Yesterday, Biden emerged from talks with Abbas in Ramallah, on the occupied West Bank, and repeated his criticisms of the timing and substance of Israel’s announcement.

“It is incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them,” he said.

“The decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines that very trust, the trust that we need right now in order to begin … profitable negotiations.”

The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, said the Palestinians appreciated “the strong statement of condemnation” by the US administration.

Eli Yishai, the Israeli interior minister, apologised for the timing of the announcement, admitting it had caused Biden “real embarrassment”.

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Mahmoud Abbas ‘not ready to negotiate’ after Israel announces 1,600 new homes for East Jerusalem

The Palestinians pulled out of a new round of indirect peace talks last night, even before they had begun, as a protest at Israel’s decision to announce approval for hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

The decision to pull out, announced in Cairo by Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, represents a major setback to months of diplomacy by the US administration and comes after the US vice-president, Joe Biden, delivered an unusually strong rebuke to Israel.

Amr Moussa said he had been told by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, that even this low-key process of so-called “proximity talks” could not start unless Israel stopped expanding its settlements.

“The Palestinian side is not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances,” Moussa said.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have not held direct negotiations since Israel’s war in Gaza last year. The White House had won agreement on Monday from the two sides to begin the indirect talks, hoping they would lead to face-to-face meetings.

The Palestinians had insisted there would be no direct talks unless Israel halted all settlement expansion, in line with the demands of the US administration and the roadmap, which remains the framework of peace talks.

But Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, leading a rightwing coalition government, offered only a temporary, partial curb to new building.

Then, on Tuesday, hours after Biden met Israeli leaders, the Israeli interior ministry announced approval for 1,600 new apartments in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. All settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.

Israel’s opposition Kadima party said it is planning a no-confidence vote in the prime minister in parliament for “destroying” the Biden visit.

Yesterday, Biden emerged from talks with Abbas in Ramallah, on the occupied West Bank, and repeated his criticisms of the timing and substance of Israel’s announcement. “It is incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them,” he said.

“The decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines that very trust, the trust that we need right now in order to begin … profitable negotiations.”

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said the Palestinians appreciated “the strong statement of condemnation” by the US administration.

Eli Yishai, Israel’s interior minister, apologised for the timing of the announcement, admitting that it had caused Biden “real embarrassment”.

Arrest of ‘cat lady’, suspected of plot to kill Prophet cartoonist, linked to terror suspects held in Ireland

She lived in Main Street, Pennsburg, which in hindsight is about as rich a paradox as could be. Her apartment on the second floor of a block of flats in the Pennsylvania town was nondescript, except for some wind chimes and a star hanging from the balcony.

But today the world learned of Colleen LaRose’s alleged second life, one quite out of keeping with the low-key figure she presented. She was blonde, blue-eyed, 5ft 2ins tall and wholly unassuming, according to a former boyfriend, Kurt Gorman. “She seemed normal to me. She was a good person,” he told the Philadelphia Daily News.

But to the FBI agents who had been tracking her every move from at least as early as July last year, she was potentially a dangerous would-be terrorist intent on martyrdom and using the aliases Jihad Jane and Fatima LaRose.

Today, an indictment was unsealed accusing her of plotting to murder a Swedish man in order to frighten “the whole Kufar (nonbeliever) world”.

Although the indictment does not name him, her intended victim is reported to have been Lars Vilks, a cartoonist who drew a satirical picture of the head of the prophet Muhammad on top of a dog’s body.

US media have reported that LaRose’s case is linked to the arrest in Ireland on Tuesday of seven suspected plotters from Algeria, Croatia, Palestine, Libya and the US. Al-Qaida had placed a $100,000 (£67,000) bounty on Vilks’s head.

The arrest of LaRose, 46, has been seized on by US national security officials as a warning that terrorist groups want to recruit white Americans to circumvent tight travel controls.

David Kris of the justice department said the allegation “that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas … underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face”.

The US prosecutor for Pennsylvania, Michael Levy, said: “The case demonstrates that terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance.”

LaRose was arrested on 15 October as she returned to the US from a trip to Europe, but details have only now been released to allow international agents to track her contacts. She is being held at a federal prison in Philadelphia.

She grew up in Texas but moved to Philadelphia in 2004. Neighbours in Pennsburg told the Los Angeles Times she had a reputation for eccentricity. “She was the weird, weird, weird lady who lived across the hall. We always called her the crazy lady,” said Eric Newell, adding that despite that he never thought she was dangerous. His wife, Kristy, said LaRose used to talk a lot to her cats.

Why and when LaRose converted to Islam is not known, but the indictment pinpoints her involvement in jihadist conspiracy to June 2008, when she allegedly posted a comment on YouTube under the alias Jihad Jane, saying she was “desperate to do something somehow to help” the suffering Muslim people.

The charges detail how over the next few months she came into contact through the internet with five separate unnamed but known jihadists in Europe and south Asia. The first connection was allegedly in December 2008 with a south Asian resident who wanted to “wage jihad and become a ’shaheed’ (martyr)”.

LaRose replied she too wanted to martyr herself, the indictment says. On 20 February last year she sent an email saying that her physical appearance would allow her to “blend in with many people”, which “may be a way to achieve what is in my heart”, the indictment says.

The following month one of her contacts suggests she “can get access to many places due to ur nationality”. LaRose is also alleged to have used the internet to recruit women with passports and easy travel access around Europe in support of violent jihad.

The FBI questioned her about soliciting funds for terrorism and posting on terrorist websites under the username Jihad Jane in July last year. But LaRose showed considerable naivety.

On 23 August she suddenly disappeared from her apartment, to her boyfriend’s amazement. “I came home and she’s gone,” he said, adding that she stole his passport, for which she has also been charged.

That day she travelled to Europe and by September, the indictment says, she was actively searching for her Swedish target, becoming a “citizen” of the artist’s cyber community. On 30 September she sent an email saying it was “an honour & great pleasure to die or kill” and pledging that “only death will stop me here that i am so close to the target!”

It is not clear why, but she did not go through with the attack and returned to the US on 15 October, when she was arrested.

If convicted she faces life in prison and fines of up to $1m.

Homegrown terrorism

News of the existence of “Jihad Jane” comes at a time of mounting anxiety in the US about the incidence of American citizens engaging in jihadist activities. It is a phenomenon of homegrown terrorism that has previously been considered rare in the country.

In December last year FBI agents and their Pakistani colleagues interrogated five young American Muslims who were suspected of being on their way to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban, against US-led forces. The five, aged 19 to 25, had formed a close-knit social group in the Alexandria area of Virginia. They had all disappeared from their family homes in late November, reportedly leaving behind a video featuring war scenes and statements about the defence of Muslims.

Earlier in December, another US citizen, David Headley, was charged with helping to plan the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people in 2008. Headley, 49, who lived in Chicago, is accused of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim people, and to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group. Headley was born in Washington DC to a Pakistani diplomat based at the country’s embassy and an American mother. He adopted his mother’s surname in 2006, which investigators claim allowed him to move more easily across borders.