Israel dismisses U.S. anger at settlement plan

Netanyahu seemed keen to contain the fresh dispute with Washington over settlements, ordering cabinet ministers to show restraint after the White House said it was “dismayed” at the plan to build 900 new houses in Gilo.

An official said the order went out after a deputy minister was quoted by an Israeli news website as accusing the United States of “behaving like a bull in a china shop” for objecting to the building plan for an area in the West Bank that Israel sees as part of Jerusalem. Netanyahu's aide also sent reporters a message calling the building plan “a routine process”. He said Netanyahu does not normally review municipal building plans and saw Gilo as “an integral part of Jerusalem.”

“Construction in Gilo has taken place regularly for dozens of years and there is nothing new about the current planning and construction,” the aide added.

President Barack Obama has been trying to persuade Israel to rein in settlement activity so that peace talks with the Palestinians, stalled for nearly a year, can resume. Netanyahu has said he would avoid expanding existing settlements, but rejects demands to stop building in Jerusalem.

Gilo, where some 40,000 Israelis live, was built on West Bank land Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed as part of Jerusalem.

Some 500,000 Jews live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, also captured in 1967, among 2.7 million Palestinians.

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