Netanyahu: White House criticism un-American

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed a recent White House rebuke of Israeli settlement construction, saying in comments broadcast on Sunday that the criticism goes "against American values."

The tough words by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to deepen a rift with the White House over Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as parts of a future independent state.

Israel came under fire last week after a Jerusalem city official signed the final go-ahead for construction of a new housing development in Givat HaMatos in southern Jerusalem beyond the green line. A day earlier, an ultranationalist Jewish group said dozens of settlers would move into six apartment buildings purchased in the heart of a predominantly Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem.