Israel's Consul General in Boston, USA, is being recalled by the Israeli Government to explain why, in breach of protocol, he has expressed the view in a leaked memo that Israel's illegal policy on settlement construction is "causing strategic damage to Israel". Editorial Comment: Israel's intransigence on the settlement issue precludes any chance that Saudi Arabia's most recent peace initiative, embodied in the Beirut Declaration and endorsed the the entire Arab world, has any chance of making progress.
