Israeli leader, Obama to meet amid strained ties

Washington (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with top Obama administration officials Monday and President Obama on Tuesday as the two countries tackle a rift over construction in largely Arab East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday afternoon, then attend a  dinner with Vice President Joe Biden. Afterward, the prime minister is to speak at a banquet of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby.

The meeting with Obama will take place the following day at the White House, the prime minister's office said.

Netanyahu's visit comes after his government announced plans to build 1,600 apartments on disputed land in East Jerusalem. The announcement has strained U.S. ties with Israel.

During a Sunday Cabinet meeting, the prime minister said Israel won't back down.

"Our policy regarding Jerusalem is the same as it was over the past 42 years. We have made it clear to the Americans that, for us, building there is just like building in Tel Aviv," Netanyahu said. Israel captured the land in question in 1967.

The prime minister was responding to comments made as the U.N. secretary-general visited Gaza and condemned Israeli policy there.

"I have repeatedly made it clear to Israel that the Israeli policy of closure is not sustainable and that is wrong," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon  said. "It causes unacceptable sufferings of human beings and particularly to the people and population in ... Gaza."

Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel favors direct talks.

"We can raise any issue for negotiation and have made it clear we can do so better through direct talks. Only if you sit down and speak can you reach a real negotiation," he said.

Conditions to any such talks by both sides have kept negotiators from meeting face to face, however.

The two sides had agreed to indirect talks shortly before Israel announced the 1,600 apartments, putting the negotiation process on hold.

Ban said Friday that the so-called Middle East Quartet condemns Israel's construction plans. The quartet -- which consists of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations -- seeks peace in the region.

The quartet's envoy, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said last week that Israel has offered measures to kick-start the peace process in the Mideast conflict.

Blair's comments came after a meeting Friday of the quartet in Moscow, Russia, which called for Israel and the Palestinians to have direct negotiations and reach a final settlement within two years.

Netanyahu  pledged a package of measures to boost confidence and get the peace process back on track, Blair said. Those measures include steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Blair said, but he did not specify whether they included prisoner releases.

Complex negotiations about the proposal are taking place, Blair said.

Blair said he is certain that Israel wants a workable peace deal with the Palestinians but that it is also important for Palestinians to know they would have a viable independent state.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat welcomed the quartet's statement and said he hoped it would translate into action. Erakat has said it would be "very difficult" to hold any negotiations unless Israel rescinds its plan to build in East Jerusalem.

Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli minister of foreign affairs, resisted the quartet's two-year plan.

"You can't force peace in an artificial way with an unrealistic timetable," he said on a visit Friday to Brussels, Belgium. "Statements like this only distance a true settlement between Israel and the Palestinians."