White House refrains from commenting on new E. Jerusalem homes

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump will keep discussing Israel’s settlement enterprise with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said Monday, days after Israel announced plans to build roughly 15,000 new units in East Jerusalem.

“I’m sure that we’ll continue to have conversations with the prime minister,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer said when asked at the daily press briefing if Netanyahu was “snubbing” the president. “That will be something that the president will continue to discuss.”

Israel’s Housing Ministry announced the latest construction project last week, a few days after reports circulated that Trump is planning to visit the country on May 22. A senior administration official would only tell The Times of Israel that the White House was “exploring” a trip to the Jewish state and other countries.

Trump has voiced discontent with Israel’s settlement project.

At a joint press conference with Netanyahu in Washington this February, the president said he wanted Israel to “hold back on settlements for a little bit.”

He also told the Sheldon Adelson-owned Hebew-language daily Israel Hayom that settlements “don’t help the process … and every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left.”

Trump, who is meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House this week, has initiated an attempt to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, what he has referred to as “the ultimate deal.”

To jump-start negotiations, he sent his Special Envoy for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt on a “listening tour” in the region where he met with various stakeholders in the decades-old conflict.

Greenblatt held multiple meetings with Netanyahu and an Israeli delegation, but was unable to reach a formal deal on settlements going forward. The two countries reportedly arrived at an informal agreement to limit Israel’s settlement activity.

Netanyahu announced the new policy after the security cabinet approved plans to establish a new settlement in the West Bank for families evicted from the razed Amona outpost. The High Court of Justice ruled it had been built illegally on private Palestinian land.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that any future construction would be limited to existing settlement boundaries or adjacent to them, and that Israel will also prevent the construction of any new illegal outposts.