Throughout the past many years, whenever Israel would announce the start of construction of new illegal settlements on Palestinian territory, the pat response from Washington was that these outposts were illegal and an obstacle to peace. However, this week, both the White House and State Department not only slammed Israel for new construction in the West Bank but practically called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a liar for doing so. The White House accused Israel of a betrayal of trust, saying Netanyahu's word had been called into question and that it had received public assurances from the Israeli government that contradicted the announcement. In a similarly strong-worded statement, the State Department said building the units "is another step toward cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that would further call into question Israel's commitment to achieving a negotiated peace". It said the approval contradicted previous public statements by Israel that it had no intention of creating new settlements. The settlement in question which drew the ire of the US and the unusually sharp rebuke would include up to 300 new homes and an industrial zone in the heart of the West Bank, roughly halfway between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus. The "public assurance" that Washington is referring to came in Netanyahu's June 2009 speech at Bar Ilan University where he said, "The territorial issues will be discussed in a permanent agreement. Till then we have no intention to build new settlements or set aside land for new settlements." Israel disputes whether last week's start of new construction, in the illegal outpost of Amona, was actually a settlement. Amona, it says, is being relocated. Its residents must leave their homes in accordance with a demolition order issued by Israel's High Court of Justice. It should be noted that Amona is the flagship of the settler enterprise. A decade ago, thousands of Israeli police officers stormed Amona to raze nine illegally built homes. The clash with its settlers injured 300 of them and has never been forgotten. Thus, Amona is today becoming a test of how far Israel's right-wing government will go to avoid a clash with its constituency. It is now forcing Netanyahu to balance the demands of his conservative coalition partners, the state's judicial authorities and world leaders, who overwhelmingly view the settlements as violations of international law. And of course, Amona remains illegal. Whether its settler residents move from Point A to Point B, the transfer is still all in occupied territory. There is, in addition, the timing of Israel's announcement - shortly after the US and Israel agreed on a defense agreement that will provide Israel with $38 billion in aid over the next decade. Stabs in the back are not the way strong allies are supposed to treat each other. Last week's blunt criticism from the US once again raises speculation in Israel that President Barack Obama is gearing up to support a UN initiative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the waning days of his administration. Many expect the US president, in an effort to shore up his legacy, to support a UN resolution. This is a prospect that Israel dreads because of its history of strained relations with the organization, which it sees as one-sided, and its opposition to peace initiatives that come outside the framework of direct negotiations. Obama made no headway during his two terms in office in finding a solution to the long-running conflict, with the last round of direct talks between the two sides collapsing in April 2014. The reason is obvious. In the years since Amona, the West Bank settler population has grown to nearly 400,000 from about 250,000. About 570,000 Israelis now live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. With Amona, make that 101.
