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The white house has just put out a statement on israel plans to build new settlements in the west bank, expand existing settlements at the same time. it says, and i'm quoting from the statement right now released by the white house press secretary, sean spicer, quote, while we don't believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal. the statement then says, the trump administration has not taken an official position on settlement acti...

That the obama administration took at the outset in 2009, asking israel to pause settlement activity to try to get the peace process started. so we'll see if that sticks with the trump administration, but now it's interesting to see what israel's reaction will be. >> dana -- i'm anxious to get dana bash's reaction, because the statement also says, as the president expressed many times, he hopes to achieve peace throughout the middle east region. >> yeah, i actually -- i'm pretty surprised that the white house put out this statement, and did it now. you know, perhaps they are kind of learning a...

>> this wasn't about dumping anything -- >> you must be aware of the calendar, right? >> it's about doing what we felt is the right thing to try to see a viable two-state solution move forward. we continue to believe and prime minister netanyahu believes it. we believe the settlement activity -- not just that but the terrorism, all that, none of that is constructive to getting us to the solution. so it's because we believe in that solution, it's because israel -- >> is this -- the pecking order is out of whack. the stuff that are big deals. >> a lot going on in the world. it's difficult to hav...

More fallout after a u.n. security council vote condemning israel for settlement activity in the west bank. the u.s. state department now saying it is surprised by the criticism of uk prime minister theresa may's office regarding u.s. secretary of state john kerry's speech this week criticizing israel. >> the israeli prime minister publicly supports a two state solution. but his current coalition is the most right wing in israeli history with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements. the result is that policies of this government, which the prime minister himself just described, has more ...

Israel. that accelerated settlement activity. the move in israeli politics to the right. you heard secretary kerry talk about the most extreme, the extremist, the settle lers really dominating the political scene. they saw the two state solution was slipping away and see what's happening in this country. donald trump was elected. he spoke about moving the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. he pointed a hard line ambassador. >> who dismissed the two state solution. >> talks about annexing the west bank. so they really felt in good conscience they couldn't walk out the door without putting thei...