UNDOUBTEDLY, the March 9th announcement by Tel Aviv, approving the construction of 1600 new settler homes in Ramat Shlomo, East Jerusalem, flew in the face of world opinion. The Palestinians have been demonstrating against the decision despite brutal attempts at suppressing them by Israeli forces, whose firing caused the death of four Palestinians last Sunday and has injured scores of others since then. The effort to encroach upon East Jerusalem by settling Jewish population drew strong criticism from virtually all quarters, even from US leaders. Vice President Joe Biden, who had earlier assured Israel of Washingtons absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to its security, condemned the move. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it an insult to the US, a deeply negative signal and a senior White House Adviser termed it as an affront (that is) very, very destructive. UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and the UN-sponsored Quartet were equally severe in their criticism. Yet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained unmoved, merely voicing regret for the row the settlement issue had raised with the US; he showed no inclination to cancel the project, rather maintained that 'construction to continue as in the past 42 years. The American leaders compulsion to bow to the Israeli lobby apart, one would tend to agree with columnist Bilal Hassen who titled his write-up, Israel crosses the linebut with US support. The timing of the announcement was intriguingly interesting; it coincided with the visit of Mr Biden to the region and his meetings with Israeli leaders, thus administering a slap in his face. A still more striking aspect of Tel Avivs behaviour was the backdrop to the scene that had been patiently prepared by President Barack Obama. He had to wait for four months before Mr Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month temporary freeze of settlements in response to Mr Obamas call for a permanent freeze on these settlements. It was, indeed, downright insulting to him. In the process, the project wrecked the prospects of talks between the Palestinians and Israelis. But then, when has Israel not told the world by its actions that it had no plans to give the Palestinians any place on their land to live, let alone an independent, viable Palestinian state side by side the Israeli state