In less than seven days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to change his mind regarding the Regularization law at least five times. And if we take a wider perspective of Netanyahu’s stance toward the bill that is supposed to regularize all the illegal housing units in West Bank settlements, the prime minister has zigzagged and flip-flopped many more times than that.

Ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked (HaBayit HaYehudi) initiated the bill in an effort to compensate the residents of the Amona outpost who were evacuated Feb. 2, the residents of nine illegal houses in the Ofra settlement and the other tens of thousands who live in housing units on controversial land. Netanyahu is trying to keep up with his coalition rivals from HaBayit HaYehudi, mainly due to lack of choice: He needs to safeguard his chances for siphoning off some of their voters in the next elections. The new US administration was drawn into this chaos — an administration that is still a puzzle to the higher-ups in Jerusalem.

Officials in the Israeli defense system recommend not to try to establish facts on the ground — namely construct new West Bank settlements — before full coordination is attained with the new administration in Washington. Netanyahu’s emissaries who have met with the Trump administration’s top brass several times are still unable to put their finger on the new president’s policies. It is altogether likely that the president himself has not finished consolidating his policies with regard to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Netanyahu is trying to maneuver between all these opposing forces and hold the stick at both ends, while investing great efforts in trying to understand the new rules that President Donald Trump will lay out for him.

The bill was supposed to have passed its second and third readings in the Knesset and become Israeli law last week — simultaneously with the evacuation of the illegal outpost of Amona. On the evening of Jan. 28, Netanyahu announced that the law would be passed “on Monday” (Jan. 30). Then, on Jan. 30 he promised it “will pass this week,” but the week went by and on the morning of Feb. 5 he was still throwing out hints that he intended to make the push and pass the bill into law Feb. 6. But then he reconsidered and said that it was preferable to wait for coordination with the Trump administration. He said that he wanted to talk with Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, so that the latter could coordinate the process with the administration.