News over the past week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to accept the Trump administration's requests to rein in settlement-building and to put together a package of "goodwill" gestures towards the Palestinian Authority has been met with a relatively muted response from the far-right component of the Israeli government.
Mr Netanyahu informed his ministers of the American requests at a special security cabinet meeting last week.
The settlers were somewhat mollified by the fact he also announced a new settlement would be built near Shiloh as part of the agreement with the 42 families evicted two months ago from the Amona outpost. The decision prompted the usual condemnations from the United Nations and European leaders, but a much more restrained statement from the White House.
However, Mr Netanyahu made it clear that for the time being, aside from the new settlement, Israel will not be building outside the existing built-up areas in the West Bank – and this got the settlers worried. Their main supporter in the government, Jewish Home leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, responded with a series of tweets complaining about a "strategic missed opportunity" to pursue an alternative policy of Israeli sovereignty over the settlements. Instead, he wrote, "we've returned to the same old two states which will lead to nowhere except frustration".
