A storm of American protest is waiting for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose plane is to land in Washington early Tuesday morning. The White House already has slammed Israel for this week's announcement of construction of nearly 900 new houses in Pisgat Zev and Har Homa. Presidential spokeswomen Dana Perino said, "Our position on the settlements is that, you know, we don't believe that any more settlements should be built. And we know that it exacerbates the tensions when it comes to the negotiations with the Palestinians."
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also charged that the new construction violates the Roadmap plan and previous Israeli commitments to freeze new building in Judea and Samaria. Israel never has included the Jerusalem area, including Pisgat Zev and Har Homa, as part of Judea and Samaria. The Bush administration also did not define the neighborhoods as "settlements' until American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice changed the policy earlier this year.
Housing Minister Zev Boim (Kadima) replied that Pisgat Zev and Har Homa have the same status as Gilo, Ramot and Ramat Eshkol, all of them areas that were restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967 and later annexed to Jerusalem.