German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to disagree on the question of Israeli plans to build more Jewish settlements, the chancellor said on Thursday. "We agreed that we disagree on this," Merkel said at a news conference with Netanyahu in Berlin. "We in Germany believe the work on a two-state solution must be continued ... we must keep trying to come to negotiations and one-sided moves should be avoided," she added. Netanyahu embarked on a two-day trip to the Czech Republic and Germany on Wednesday, against the backdrop of international criticism of Israel's recently announced construction plans in the E1 area near Jerusalem. Netanyahu was accompanied by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Agriculture Minister Orit Noked, Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. The trip began on Wednesday with a four-hour stop in Prague, where Netanyahu met with Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas and thanked him for his country's vote against the U.N. resolution that granted the Palestinians nonmember observer state status. "History has shown us time and again that what is right is not what is popular," Netanyahu said. "Seventy-four years ago, in 1938, in Munich, leading powers of the world forced this proud democracy to sacrifice its vital interests. The international community applauded almost uniformly without exception. They hailed this as something that would bring peace in our time, they said. But rather than bring peace, those forced concessions from Czechoslovakia paved the way to the worst war in history." Nečas said a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict could only be found through direct talks between the two sides. He said a solution would not be found at the U.N. in New York, but in Jerusalem and Ramallah, and he called on both sides to avoid taking unilateral steps. From the Czech Republic, Netanyahu flew to Germany, where he had dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. On Thursday, Netanyahu and the other members of his entourage were set to have meetings with their German counterparts, with the goal of strengthening the relationship between the two countries. It was expected that Merkel would ask Netanyahu to halt the E1 construction plan to avoid harming the chances of renewing talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu was expected to express disappointment to Merkel that Germany abstained from, rather than opposed, the Palestinian bid at the U.N. In an interview he gave to the German Die Welt newspaper, Netanyahu said: "I would be insincere if I didnt say I was disappointed, as were many people in Israel, by the German vote in the UN. People know that there is a special relationship between Germany and Israel. I think Chancellor Merkel was of the opinion that this vote would in some way foster peace. In fact the opposite is the case: after the UN vote, the Palestinian Authority under president Abbas is making plans to join with the terrorists of Hamas." Netanyahu added that the planned construction was in parts of Jerusalem and settlement blocs that the Palestinians had agreed during past talks would remain part of Israel in a final-status peace agreement. Netanyahu was expected to tell Merkel that Israeli governments had built in Jerusalem for 45 years and that his position on E1 was no different from that of previous prime ministers, from Yitzhak Rabin to Ehud Olmert. Netanyahu was also set to emphasize that it was the Palestinians who had taken a unilateral step and violated past agreements and that Israel would also respond to any additional unilateral steps that the Palestinians might take. But Merkel sharply condemned the policy as potentially torpedoing hopes for peace and the viability of a Palestinian state. "Israel is undermining faith in its willingness to negotiate and the geographic space for a future Palestinian state, which must be the basis for a two-state solution, is disappearing," her spokesman Steffen Seibert said this week. German analysts say they do not see a fundamental change in Germany's overall policy toward Israel. Support for Israel has been a cornerstone of German policy, in part due to its sense of responsibility for the Holocaust. Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office, said confused diplomatic signals from all sides in the run-up to the U.N. vote, "combined with some longer-term dissatisfaction," appeared to have led to the German abstention. "I wouldn't take it as a sign that Germany has changed course on Israel," she said. As a sign of the sensitivity surrounding the meetings, a Netanyahu aide said an Israeli academic invited to Berlin for the talks had been barred at the last minute because of her critical views of the Israeli military. Professor Rivka Feldhay of Tel Aviv University apparently signed a petition in 2008 in support of Israeli soldiers who refuse orders, although in an interview on Army Radio on Thursday she said that while she opposed "the occupation," she did not recall signing a petition backing disobeying orders in the army. Meanwhile, the Civil Administration's higher planning committee on Wednesday approved the submission of the E1 construction plan. Objections to the plan can now be filed over the next 60 days. Only then will the plan be brought for final approval. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday called Israel's E1 construction plan a "red line." He said the Palestinians would soon turn to relevant legal bodies as well as the U.N. Security Council in an effort to block the construction.
