Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently pledged the construction of 3,800 new housing units in West Bank settlements. But in fact, the civil administration’s High Planning Council approved only a few hundred Oct. 16-17. This elicited a bitter argument among leaders of the settlement umbrella organization Yesha Council, who had hoped to obtain many more construction permits.

But despite the settlers’ criticism over the reduced number of permits, they could not decide whether to issue a sharp protest or launch a full-blown campaign against Netanyahu. Head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan, who pushed for a more aggressive approach, was forced to accept a limited, almost private, protest against delays in the paving of bypass rounds for settlers to use around Arab villages and other security measures to prevent terrorist attacks.

This internal argument among the settlers and, especially, its consequences, are indicative of Netanyahu's considerable maneuverability and of his ability, at least for now, to wiggle his way without angering either side. On one the hand, he is renewing settlement construction, even if only on a limited scale. On the other hand, he is doing this without really upsetting the US administration or the settlers.

US presidential candidate Donald Trump made statements during his campaign in favor of the settlement enterprise, but once Trump was elected, Netanyahu decided to take a careful approach, rejecting several requests to build new housing units in the West Bank. This comes after eight years of the Obama administration, in which construction was effectively frozen, since settlements were considered to be an obstacle to any potential agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.