Intensifying President Biden’s policy of distancing America from Israel, Secretary Blinken is declaring Jewish settlements in the West Bank illegal. The announcement reverses President Trump’s policy on Judea and Samaria. 

Announced in Brazil Friday, Mr. Blinken’s apparent pushback on the “Pompeo doctrine,” named after his predecessor, is a reaction to the Israeli government’s initial approval of new housing units in existing West Bank settlements. Mr. Blinken said he was “disappointed” by the Israelis.

Jerusalem’s decision is counterproductive for Mideast peace, the secretary said, adding it is “also inconsistent with international law. Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment this only weakens, doesn’t strengthen, Israel’s security.”

The Israeli cabinet’s announcement on new settlements construction on Thursday was an apparent response to a terrorist attack earlier that day. Three Palestinian Arab men from the West Bank opened fire on cars stuck in traffic on a road to Jerusalem from its suburb of Maale Adumim.

One Israeli man was killed in the attack and 11, including a pregnant woman, were wounded. Hours later, members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government recommended, pending final approval, construction of 2,350 new housing units at Maale Adumim, as well as 300 units at Kedar, and 694 at Efrat. 

All three long-established Jewish settlements are situated beyond the 1949 armistice line. In 1967 Israel took the West Bank in a war forced on it by Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. Along the years Washington allocated territory east of the armistice “green line” for a future Palestinian state, pending some changes reached in negotiations between Israel and Arabs. It opposed Jewish settlements there, arguing that it would jeopardize such negotiations.

In November 2019, Secretary Pompeo declared that America no longer sees Jewish settlement in the West Bank as “inconsistent with international law.” His statement was followed by a 2020 proposal for an Israel-Palestinian peace that recognized the legitimacy of established Jewish settlements east of the Green Line. 

Mr. Blinken’s reversal of that policy was immediately pushed back against by alumni of the Trump administration. Mr. Pompeo reposted a statement by a former American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who was one of the architects of Mr. Trump’s policy. 

“For Blinken to announce this in the middle of a war and when the Jewish Sabbath already has begun in Israel is unconscionable,” Mr. Friedman wrote on X. “Blinken is 100% wrong. I researched this for over a year with many State Department lawyers. There is nothing illegal about Jews living in their biblical homeland.”

Even before the “Pompeo doctrine” changed America’s legal approach to settlements, Washington policy was more nuanced than outright condemnation. Some administrations highlighted and denounced Israeli approval of construction. 

Others, though, allowed for population growth in long-established settlements. The administration of President George W. Bush approved West Bank construction as long as it stayed inside the existing borderline of settlements — as the Thursday plan seems to be.

Stung by criticism of his support of Israel following the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, Mr. Biden, in contrast, is increasingly attempting to balance it by adapting policies he believes to be favoring the Palestinians. 

Last month the Department of State announced sanctions against four Jewish West Bank settlers, which was immediately followed by a similar British listing. France then said 29 West Bank settlers would be barred from entering the country. Paris declined to name the settlers, in effect saying anyone living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem could potentially be blacklisted. 

Washington officials recently hinted in press leaks that additional names could be added to the list of sanctioned settlers. Other press leaks indicated that state department officials are recommending a unilateral American recognition of a Palestinian state. 

In a rare show of unity on Wednesday, 99 Knesset members approved a resolution opposing the foundation of such a state other than through bilateral negotiations. The vote was widely seen as a rebuke of Mr. Biden’s renewed push for the so-called two-state solution, seen by many in Israel at this time as rewarding Hamas terrorism.  

“I won’t mince words,” Mr. Biden wrote on X Thursday. “The overwhelming majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. And Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. In fact, they’re also suffering as a result of Hamas’ terrorism. We need to be clear-eyed about that reality.”

In the only reliable recent survey, published in December by a Palestinian pollster, 72 percent of West Bank and Gaza respondents termed the October 7 terrorist attack “correct.” In Gaza, 52 percent voiced satisfaction with Hamas’s conduct of the war, as did 85 percent of West Bankers.