President Obama reportedly said after Israel’s announcement on the E-1 area that he has become “inured” to Israel’s “self-defeating policies” and that “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are,” Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg has reported.

Mr Goldberg wrote that while there was official condemnation of the Israeli policy following the Palestinian upgrade in the UN, it was what did not happen in the White House that was more interesting.

Mr Obama, he said, “didn’t even both getting angry”.

“He told several people that this sort of behaviour on Netanyahu’s part is what he has come to expect”, Mr Goldberg reported.

The article argued that the “dysfunctional” relationship between Mr Obama and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu will have consequences. In the short term, the US will not cut off aid to Israel, Mr Goldberg said, and the fight against Iranian nuclear capability will continue regardless, but without movement on the settlements Israel may find itself isolated, especially in the UN.