Report: US Giving Israel Flak Over Building in Yehuda and Shomron

Tensions between the Biden administration and the Israeli government continued to rise on Tuesday as Washington protested to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office against plans to build new homes in Yehuda and Shomron, according to a report on Walla news.

The U.S. Embassy’s charge d’affaires Michael Ratney phoned Bennett’s diplomatic adviser Shimrit Meir last week to express Washington’s displeasure with the Israeli move.

Ratney reportedly stressed that many of the homes in the approval process are located outside the existing Jewish population blocs, which are widely expected to be included in Israeli territory in any final peace agreement with the Palestinians.

“This was a difficult conversation,” one of the sources was quoted as saying.

Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the U.S. State Department would comment.

Also on Tuesday, it was reported that the Israeli foreign ministry is sending an envoy to Washington to sort out a dispute between the countries over whether Israel had given the U.S. prior notification of its intention to designate six Palestinian organizations as terror groups last week.