UK’s deputy PM says Israel is ‘vandal’-izing the two-state solution. Israel accuses him of ‘gratuitous bashing’

Some day we will study this period of history with amazement. When the tail wagged the dogs all over the world. Last night the Republican candidates were falling over themselves to align themselves with Israel, and meantime here is a Telegraph video of the deputy prime minister’s sharp attack on Israeli settlement building. Nick Clegg is obviously voicing Obama’s views here too. But Obama can’t speak openly because of “domestic political considerations,” as Nixon and Kissinger used to murmur to one another.

Oh and notice the churlish Israeli response to the criticism, reported by Telegraph’s Adrian Bloomfield. The spoiled child of the west indeed.

The Deputy Prime Minister drew a hostile reaction from Israel by saying the government’s continued construction on internationally recognised Palestinian land was “an act of deliberate vandalism” that undermined the basis of the Middle East peace process.

In some of the most critical language ever used by a senior European politician in government, Mr Clegg accused Israel of making the likelihood of a negotiated settlement to the conflict impossible to deliver.

“It is an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise on which negotiations have taken place for years and years and years,” Mr Clegg said.

He said there was “no stronger supporter of Israel than myself as a beacon of democracy in the region”, but added: “The continued existence of illegal settlements risks making facts on the ground such that a two-state solution becomes unviable.

“That, in turn, will do nothing to safeguard the security of Israel itself or of Israeli citizens. That is why I condemn the continued illegal settlement activity in the strongest possible terms.”…

while European and even American government officials regularly criticise Israel’s settlement policies, few have done so quite as bluntly, a fact that will strain the Government’s increasingly tense relations with Mr Netanyahu.

Israel reacted with predictable hostility, with a foreign ministry spokesman accusing Mr Clegg of “gratuitous bashing”.

“It would be much better to contribute to peace by encouraging the fragile revival of Israeli-Palestinian talks,” the spokesman said.

Mr Abbas was delighted by so strong an endorsement of the Palestinian position. “That is exactly what we wanted to hear officially from the government of the United Kingdom,” he said.

Officials in Jerusalem say they now view Britain as one of the most hostile states to Israel in Europe, although the Government bowed to Israeli pressure by agreeing to abstain if a vote on Palestinian statehood was held in the UN Security Council.