Ha'aretz
'German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Thursday that settlement construction in the West Bank stop, saying it endangered efforts to achieve a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
....Merkel's remarks are in line with the positions of the European Union and the United States, but were unusually clear-cut for the German leader, who regularly cites her country's special obligation to Israel because of the Holocaust...
....Washington has also called for a total halt to settlement building in the West Bank, a demand that has opened the most serious rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade... Full story
Explanation of "settlements"
