Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to build a new settlement in an area disputed by the Palestinians provoked harsh condemnation from the United States, including a rare hint that military support for Israel could be imperiled by such actions.
“Proceeding with this new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a Wednesday statement.
Toner accused the Israeli government of breaking a commitment not to build any more settlements, and suggested the decision would forestall successful peace talks.
“It is deeply troubling, in the wake of Israel and the U.S. concluding an unprecedented agreement on military assistance designed to further strengthen Israel’s security, that Israel would take a decision so contrary to its long-term security interest in a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Palestinians,” Toner said.
That lament smacked of a hint that the United States might not continue providing military aid to Israel in the face of actions that frustrate the Obama administration, according to one of Netanyahu’s political opponents.
“The linkage between the settlement enterprise and the defense aid agreement warns of future danger,” Michal Rozin, an opposition member of the Israeli legislature, told Haaretz. “Strategic ties with the U.S. are not self-understood and if the government keeps spitting in their faces then apparently we will soon be facing a risk to our security such as we have never seen before.”
