(Olivier Douliery/Pool via AP)īut a former US official familiar with the matter maintained that Jerusalem was misreading the situation. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the Willard Hotel in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. “Biden and those around him in the White House understand that we’re in a complex situation here with this government and that certain measures are required to keep it afloat,” the Israeli source said, referring to the coalition of eight parties spanning almost the entirety of the political spectrum, including several right-wing pro-settlement parties. Still, an Israeli source familiar with the matter noted to ToI Thursday that the condemnations thus far from the Biden administration have been coming exclusively from the “often critical” State Department, while the White House has remained silent. “The Americans gave us a yellow card,” the Axios news site quoted a senior Israeli official as having said of the “tense” conversation, a reference to the warning card issued in soccer. Gantz in turn pointed to the upcoming building approvals of 1,300 homes for Palestinians, and assured that additional concessions were on the horizon, while pledging to take greater stock of American concerns in the future, the Israeli official said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken phoned Gantz on Tuesday, and voiced similar objections regarding the scope and location of the settlement approvals, another Israeli official confirmed. The matter rose all the way to the seventh floor of the State Department. US Embassy in Jerusalem Chargé d’Affaires Michael Ratney phoned Bennett’s senior foreign policy adviser Shimrit Meir last week, raising US objections not only to the large number of homes slated for advancement - almost a thousand more than what was originally on the docket in August - but also the location of many of the projects, well beyond the Green Line, a senior Israeli official told ToI on Tuesday.īut it didn’t stop with Ratney or even US Deputy Assistant Secretary Hady Amr, who is the Biden administration’s point-man on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Flash90)Ĭonversations on the matter continued behind closed doors too. And it damages the prospects for a two-state solution,” Price added.Īfter a reporter noted that the statement was the furthest the Biden administration has gone on the issue, the State Department spokesman responded, “Our public messaging on this is consistent with what we are seeing transpire,” indicating that the previous messaging was no longer sufficient.Ĭonstruction work for new housing in the settlement of Modi’in Illit. “We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and restore calm. “We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government’s plan to advance thousands of settlement units on Wednesday, many of them deep in the West Bank,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a Tuesday briefing, in remarks that were not coupled with an equivalent warning to the PA against similar unilateral steps. In previous such instances though - whether it was settler violence, Israeli home demolitions, the potential evictions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem or other settlement-related announcements - the response from the State Department was to issue the same statement calling on both parties to “avoid unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and make it more difficult to preserve the viability of a two-state solution.” The settlement approvals were the first since Biden took office, but they weren’t the first steps taken by Israel that sparked condemnation from Washington.
‘Our messaging is consistent with what transpires’ Official US policy does not differentiate between construction in the blocs and construction deep in the West Bank, but comments from Biden officials that followed the settlement announcements indicated that the latter category is particularly harmful and risks squandering the “s pirit of goodwill” that Bennett has sought to build with the new administration in Washington.