Last week, the Israeli government approved the construction of 486 new housing units in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The decision quickly elicited a characteristic response: the U.S. State Department announced that it was “deeply concerned,” while Nicolay Mladenov, the UN “special coordinator for the Middle East peace process” condemned settlement building as the main impediment to resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. None of these statements, writes Jonathan Tobin, is connected to reality:

[T]he one thing we can definitively say about the [the new homes] is that their construction will have zero impact on the prospects of revived negotiations with the Palestinians or on a successful outcome of such talks if they ever resume. . . .

[A]lmost all of these new housing units are in places that even the Obama administration has stated would remain part of Israel in the event of a successful peace negotiation. . . . [Furthermore], the language used to describe these developments is part of the problem. Nobody would call a new apartment building in an existing neighborhood in the United States a new town, but that’s essentially what is being done every time the construction of a house anywhere in Jerusalem or the West Bank (provided it is a house that Jews live in) is called a new settlement. . . .

Of course, to Israel’s critics and foes, the semantics of settlements and even legal questions about land aren’t significant. . . . Focusing on the settlements is the tactic the Palestinians have [deployed] since the Oslo Accords to excuse their strategy of avoiding peace. It’s a shame the U.S. government, the UN, and liberal publications like the Times echo their talking points.

The editors of the Wall Street Journal rightly call the Biden administration’s new policy an arms embargo. (Subscription required.)

The administration would like to focus on the denial of 2,000-pound bombs, which it says are too destructive. Never mind that a professional force can employ them in a manner that restricts the radius of damage. Mr. Biden is also halting a shipment of 500-pound bombs and holding up Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which convert unguided bombs into precision “smart” bombs. Politico reports that small-diameter bombs are being withheld. The Journal adds that the Biden administration has been sitting on a deal that includes tank shells and mortar rounds.

The message from the White House, in other words, is that Israel shouldn’t have large bombs or small bombs, dumb bombs or smart bombs, and let it do without tanks and artillery too. Now isn’t a good time to send the weapons, you see, because Israel would use them.

But it’s even worse than that: withholding the JDAMs in effect encourages Israel to use dumb bombs in instances when precision weapons would be more effective, and less likely to cause harm to bystanders. And then there is the twisted logic behind the decision:

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other U.S. officials explain that the goal of the embargo—which they present as a “pause” or “review”—is to prevent a wider Israeli attack on the Hamas stronghold of Rafah. This is the terrorists’ reward for using civilians as human shields.

It hasn’t been four weeks since Iran attacked Israel directly, in the largest drone attack in history, plus 150 or so ballistic and cruise missiles. . . . Israel needs to be ready now, and its enemies need to know the U.S. stands behind it.