When the Trump White House issued a statement Thursday night articulating the new administration’s stance on Israeli settlement construction, my initial reaction was that it was a radical departure from the Obama administration’s policy and perhaps the most sympathetic statement to Israel on the issue ever to come from a U.S. president.

So it was quite astonishing to read a front page article in the New York Times that began, “President Trump, after promising a radical break with the foreign policy of Barack Obama, is embracing some key pillars of the former administration’s strategy, including warning Israel to curb settlement construction …”