World in brief: U.S. ambassador to Israel slams government settlements policy

TEL AVIV, Israel – The U.S. ambassador to Israel criticized Israel’s West Bank settlement policies at a high-profile security conference Monday, a rare public rebuke from Israel’s top ally that drew an angry response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Daniel Shapiro said Washington was “concerned and perplexed” over Israel’s strategy of building West Bank settlements.

Speaking to the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, a top Israeli think tank, he said Israel’s continued expansion of settlements raises questions about Israel’s intentions and its stated commitment to establishing an independent Palestinian state. Shapiro added that Israel had also legalized some West Bank outposts despite pledges to the United States not to do so.

Shapiro’s remarks sparked a terse response from Netanyahu, who said they were inappropriate at a time of heightened violence with the Palestinians.

On Sunday, an Israeli woman was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in her home in a West Bank settlement. On Monday, another woman was stabbed and badly wounded in another West Bank settlement.

“The ambassador’s comments, on a day when a mother of six is being buried and a pregnant woman is stabbed, are unacceptable and untrue,” Netanyahu said.

Belgian accused of link to Paris attack

RABAT, Morocco – Moroccan police have arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan descent, saying he is linked to the Islamic State group and had a “direct relationship” to the attackers who killed 130 people in Paris two months ago, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

The man had traveled to Syria with one of the Paris suicide bombers, where he received military training and built relationships with IS field commanders, “including the mastermind” of the Paris attacks, and others who threatened attacks in France and Belgium, the ministry said in a statement.

The statement didn’t explain the suspect’s relationship to the Paris attackers.

Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt told the Associated Press the suspect’s name is Gelel Attar, a dual Belgian-Moroccan national previously convicted in Belgium of involvement with a terrorist group.

Several of the Islamic extremists who targeted a Paris rock concert, stadium and cafes on Nov. 13 had Moroccan origins and links to Belgium.

The Moroccan ministry said in a statement that the man was arrested Friday in the town of Mohammedia, near Casablanca, after traveling through Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.