The latest row over Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory

BINYAMIN NETANYAHU, Israel’s prime minister, came under pressure this week when news leaked of a new plan to build 900 homes in the occupied Jerusalem suburb of Gilo. His aides say that he knew nothing about the scheme before a local planning committee considered it.

True or not, the latest settlement expansion is exasperating for those who have been involved, for several months, in negotiations between the United States and Israel. Mr Netanyahu’s colleagues are bristling that previous efforts to prevent new building will now be forgotten. George Mitchell, America’s special envoy to the region, has been in talks with Mr Netanyahu over settlement building and the need to find ways to assuage Palestinian resentment of it (or even to find ways to freeze or stop it). These, so far, have proved fruitless, although Mr Netanyahu did meet Barack Obama in the White House two weeks ago for what he had hoped would be a tension-easing conversation. …