AAJ TV : Pakistan Ki Awaz

JERUSALEM : Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday again sought to calm tensions after coming under fire at home over a growing row with the United States over settlements.

Washington has harshly rebuked Israel over the announcement of plans for 1,600 new settler homes in mostly Arab east Jerusalem during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden earlier this week to press for peace talks.

"The crisis is still in full force and has reached new heights. It appears to be far more severe than anything we've known in the past decade, and perhaps even longer," Israel's Maariv newspaper said in an editorial.

Officials in Netanyahu's office have insisted the crisis is over following a public apology, and on Sunday the prime minister told reporters not to get "carried away" over the matter.

"I suggest we don't get carried away and calm down. We know how to deal with situations like these calmly," he said ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting.

But the Israeli press remained highly critical of Netanyahu following a rare public rebuke by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said the move sent a "deeply negative signal" about Israel's ties to its top ally.

"When was the last time we heard such harsh words, and such a cold and alienated tone of voice from Washington? And it isn't just the tone and the words. It is the lack of trust, the contempt," Israel's mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper said in an editorial entitled "Spit in the face."

Israel has always viewed the United States as its most important ally and more recently has seen it as a crucial partner in confronting Iran's nuclear drive, which Israel sees as its greatest strategic threat.

"We are heading into crucial days. The Iranian nuclear threat requires a prime minister who is the US president's darling," the Maariv editorial said.

"Instead, we have gotten ourselves a prime minister who is very close to being persona non grata in Washington. That is saddening, and it is also troubling."

The announcement over the settlements last week dealt a heavy blow to months of US-led efforts to relaunch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that were last suspended during the December 2008 to January 2009 Gaza war.

The presence of nearly a half million Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem has long been a major obstacle to the peace process.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010