Israeli construction in East Jerusalem threatens renewed peace talks

Vice President Joe Biden is in the Middle East this week to promote a restarting of the stalled peace talks in the region. Today, he met with President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. But the meeting was dominated with Tuesday's news from Israel that it had approved and planned to move forward with the construction of 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem. The building violates international law and is widely condemned by the international community. It came just hours after Biden had met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday. Now, the announcement appears to threaten the peace talks even before they are set to begin.

To get a deeper look at these events, we're joined by Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.