Wall Street Journal — Israel Rebuffs U.S. on Settlements
 
Writer Charles Levinson looks into the increasingly fraught relationship between the U.S. and Israel. The Obama administration is talking very tough about the top U.S. ally in the region – no new settlements in the West Bank at all, not even the fudge factor of “natural growth” allowed in the past. It’s a political strategy aimed at undoing the coalition of new Prime Minister Netanyahu to get a government more in line with the Obama agenda.

The Palestinians are thrilled to see the change in U.S. policy and it seems to be working.