American officials have strongly denied a statement this week by Prime Minster Ehud Olmert that American President George W. Bush personally wrote former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago that Israel could continue to expand Judea and Samaria areas that were to remain under Israeli control. "There is no understanding," said White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
The letter was written as part of an agreement towards the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza and northern Samarian regions and the abandonment of their communities for use by the Palestinian Authority.
American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the past several months has increasingly hardened a position prohibiting all building on all of the land restored to Israel in 1967, including the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Har Homa, which she referred to as a "settlement." However, Israel has cooperated with the Bush administration, and Central Bureau of Statistics show that housing starts in Judea and Samaria have declined by one-third in the past five years. The Washington Post reported, "Officials say it is politically damaging for Olmert to admit [the statistic], so instead he publicly emphasizes that he is adding to the settlements, which now house about 450,000 Israelis." The figure includes Jews living in Greater Jerusalem.