It’s one of the worst feuds in memory, the Associated Press says. The Los Angeles Times called it the biggest clash in 20 years. They’re referring to the latest diplomatic crisis to erupt between the United States and Israel. This time, it was triggered by an ill-advised announcement about a new housing complex in Jerusalem.

Last week, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden landed in Israel supposedly intent on reigniting peace talks between Palestinians and Jews. As it turns out, the Obama administration used Biden’s visit to trigger a diplomatic assault against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

During Biden’s visit, Israel’s interior minister announced that plans had been approved for an additional 1,600 housing units to be built in a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem. Netanyahu immediately apologized to Biden for the awkward timing of the announcement and Biden graciously accepted the apology. He left Israel last Thursday calling his trip a success.

The next day, however, the White House went ballistic. An enraged President Obama ordered Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to upbraid Prime Minister Netanyahu, which she promptly followed through on during a much-publicized, 43-minute phone call. Later, a Clinton spokesman publicly questioned Israel’s seriousness with respect to the peace process.

Then, on Sunday, President Obama’s senior White House adviser, David Axelrod, used extraordinarily harsh language to decry the housing announcement. He called it “an affront” and “an insult” aimed at the United States.

That same day, Netanyahu apologized again—profusely. “There was a regrettable incident that was done in all innocence and was hurtful, and which certainly should not have occurred,” he said about the gaffe. Netanyahu said he knew nothing about the announcement and ordered an investigation into the matter.

Even if Israel wanted to embarrass Vice President Biden, perhaps because of America’s failure to confront Iran, the housing announcement in no way represented a policy change. As Netanyahu noted on Monday, “No government of Israel for the last 40 years has agreed to place restrictions on building in Jerusalem.”

In November, Netanyahu’s administration ordered a freeze on construction plans in the West Bank. But that 10-month moratorium specifically excluded Jerusalem.

Ramat Shlomo, the Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of the diplomatic storm, is populated by religious Jews. It’s actually situated in northern Jerusalem, adjacent to other Jewish neighborhoods. But because it happens to be on the wrong side of the 1967 Green Line, barely, the Obama administration is treating it as the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

Never mind the fact that by demanding a freeze on construction in Jewish neighborhoods east of the Green Line, the White House is simultaneously maintaining that for a Palestinian state to ever work, the territory in question must first be ethnically cleansed of Jews.

It’s not unlike the vision Palestinian leaders have for a future Palestinian state, except that theirs includes a Jew-free Israel as well.

Meanwhile, even as Washington condemned Israel’s ill-timed announcement as being injurious to the peace process, it seemed utterly unconcerned about the Palestinians dedicating a town square to a terrorist who killed more than 30 Israelis—a move that happened right after Biden left the region.

Dalal Mughrabi, a Fatah woman, spearheaded a massacre in 1978 in which 37 Israeli civilians and an American were killed and 71 wounded in a bus hijacking on Israel’s Coastal Road. At that time, the attack was carried out for the very purpose of shutting down peace talks between Israel and Egypt.

Thursday of last week, a square in el-Bireh was named in honor of Mughrabi, who is responsible for the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history. While the Palestinian Authority said the inauguration of the square had been postponed, presumably to avoid offending Vice President Biden, Fatah (the Palestinian faction that the U.S. and Israel actually recognize) went ahead with an official naming ceremony the day of Biden’s departure.

Not to stop there, on Sunday the Palestinian Authority launched a four-day seminar named after the notorious terrorist—the “Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Camp”—purportedly to discuss PA legislative and local elections. Being held as it was on the 32nd anniversary of the 1978 terrorist attack, the Jerusalem Post says it was “seen more as a rally in honor of Mughrabi than as an academic seminar.”

If the timing of these undeniably provocative acts by the Palestinian Authority was an “affront” to the peace process, you’d never know it from the angry remarks recently made by the White House.

Those are reserved for America’s closest, most dependable ally in the Middle East—the nation that has been looking for peace, “literally dying for peace,” Charles Krauthammer writes, since 1947. Back then, like today, the Palestinians rejected a two-state solution and opted for war. They rejected Israel’s offer for peace in 1967—and again in 1978. They rejected Ehud Barak’s Palestinian statehood proposal in 2000—then Ehud Olmert’s in 2008.

Last year, Prime Minister Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel’s commitment to create an independent Palestinian state. Then, in November, he became the first Israeli prime minister to temporarily freeze construction in the West Bank.

The Palestinians, who have made no concessions, have flatly rejected Netanyahu’s gestures and have refused to join Israel at the negotiating table. Yet, in the minds of White House officials, it’s Israel that’s holding up the peace process.

What an insult to Israel.

And what a fulfillment of Bible prophecy! “Manasseh shall devour Ephraim,” the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “and Ephraim Manasseh; Together [the United States and Britain] they shall be against Judah [Israel]” (Isaiah 9:21, New King James Version). The band that once joined these three brothers together, as we have often explained, has been shredded (Zechariah 11:14).

Carefully watch as America’s relationship with Israel continues to deteriorate—and take note of who Israel turns to for help. That too is prophesied.