On July 14, exactly when reports were flowing in about the signing of the historic nuclear agreement between six world powers and Iran, the Likud Party sent a respectable delegation of five ministers on a tour in Samaria.

Twenty-four hours earlier, at a Likud faction meeting at the Knesset, a clash took place between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the heads of Judea and Samaria local councils. These officials argued that construction in Judea-Samaria has been under a de facto freeze and that Netanyahu is not fulfilling his promise of building 300 housing units in the Beit El settlement. Reportedly, Netanyahu did not deny this, and even admitted to them that Israel is not building in the settlements and cannot develop existing settlements due to the tense international situation in which the State of Israel finds itself.

Netanyahu’s response stunned the settlers. At least, that is the impression we get from the angry statement immediately afterward from the settlement umbrella organization — the Yesha Council. The publicized reaction stated, “A government that does not build in Judea-Samaria loses its very right to exist. The argument that the prime minister freezes construction in order to protect the settlement enterprise has long since been refuted. The correct way to protect the settlement enterprise is via development and construction. … The path of obsequiousness and kowtowing [to the world] will lead Israel to the edge of the abyss.”

Five Likud ministers — Danny Danon, Yariv Levin, Ofir Akunis, Ze’ev Elkin and Haim Katz — tried to calm down the ostensibly tense atmosphere between Netanyahu and the settlers. In effect, they went to great lengths to make it clear that if it were up to them, they are completely committed to construction in Judea-Samaria. Katz even promised that “if we need to make waves, that’s what we’ll do. … If there is a freeze on the ground, we need to wake up. We are obliged to do so. We are the ruling party with 30 Knesset members.”