Brief recap: The PLO’s Palestinian Authority formed a unity government with Hamas. Obama’s people defended the unity government and refused to accept that it undermined the PLO’s commitment to peace.

But Israeli houses? No way.

“This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from even its closest allies,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

In a striking public rebuke, the Obama administration warned Israel on Wednesday that plans for a controversial new housing project in east Jerusalem would distance Israel from “even its closest allies” and raise questions about its commitment to seeking peace with Palestinians.

“This development will only draw condemnation from the international community,” Earnest said. “It also would call into question Israel’s ultimate commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.”

The White House also condemned what it called the recent occupation of residential buildings in Silwan, an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem where several hundred hard-line Israeli settlers have moved in recent years. Earnest called the occupation “provocative” and said it would “escalate tensions at a moment when those tensions have already been high.”

The “occupation” consists of Jews moving into a part of Jerusalem from which they had been ethnically cleansed by invading Jordanian Muslim forces back in the forties.

I presume that Josh Earnest doesn’t consider Muslims moving into a Jewish neighborhood to be a provocation. But then again we’re cooking with double standards here.

Psaki warns that Jews living in houses in Jerusalem will distance Israel from Obama. Not sure how much more distant things can get.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected the harsh criticism issued by the White House.

“Arabs in Jerusalem are free to purchase apartments in the western [part of the] city and no one is arguing against it,” Netanyahu said. “I have no intention of telling Jews they can’t buy apartments in East Jerusalem. This is private property and an individual right. There cannot be discrimination – not against Jews and not against Arabs,” he added. “This goes against values that the United States also believes in.”

Obama wants Jewish Apartheid for Israel alongside Muslim privilege. It’s more of the same. And it’s naked bigotry.

Under Obama calling houses in Jerusalem, in which Jews live, settlements has become a form of normalized bigotry even though it’s senseless insanity to describe one of the oldest cities in the world as a settlement.

Meanwhile Obama will go on protecting Iran’s nuclear program.