U.S.-Israeli relations

WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had a pair of White House meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama regarding diplomatic slips in recent weeks.

No details of the sessions were released -- even the usual photo opportunity of the leaders greeting each other didn't occur -- other than "the atmosphere was good," a suggestion there weren't large steps toward agreement.

The situation probably wasn't helped by the Israeli announcement Tuesday of an additional 20 Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem. The United States has asked Israeli to stop such expansions but it was only earlier this month that a larger building plan was made public during a visit to Jerusalem by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

The timing of that announcement was seen as a diplomatic slap at the United States. Israeli leaders apologized that the announcement was made while Biden was there but not for the planned buildings.

Palestinian leaders pulled out of scheduled indirect talks because of the building plans for East Jerusalem, which they see as a capitol for a future Palestinian state. However, Netanyahu has now said demands that settlement expansions stop could cause the Israelis to back from talks. Middle East peace talks haven't occurred since December 2008.

On another diplomacy front, Jerusalem is dealing with Britain's expulsion of a top Israeli diplomat over the alleged use of fake British passports in the killing of a Hamas official in Dubai. Officials there have blamed the Israeli intelligence service Mossad for the assassination.