http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq
3gD9AIJQMG0

<quotes>

Israel officially approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in the
West Bank, the Defense Ministry said Monday, deepening an already
unprecedented rift with the U.S. over Israeli settlement expansion.

The construction is the first approved by the government of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under heavy U.S. pressure to freeze all
settlement activity on captured lands claimed by the Palestinians for a
future state.

Netanyahu, trying to placate the Americans, has said the newly approved
homes are a prelude to a freeze, but that's been a tough sell
internationally because Israel also plans to complete an additional 2,500
homes already under way.

</quotes>

Always a wry smile when the Defense Ministry announces further settlement
buiding, not the Interior Ministry, nor the Housing Ministy; somewhat
betrays the issue as militaristic or strategic rather than social.

Quite a kick in the nuts for Obama who has been trying to convince Israel
otherwise, a double kick with the 'building houses is a prelude to freezing
building'. That's quite a, "when we've build enough, then we'll stop',
attitude.

Will Obama and Washington bend over and dutifully take it as under Bush ?
Accept that its words on Israel are no more than empty rhetoric, accept that
Israel can do what it damned well likes, the US is powerless to stop that ?
Who's the daddy ?