The Israeli government, meanwhile, is scrambling to deflect Obama’s demand for a freeze to all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. The Independent of London reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to justify continued Israeli settlement construction by citing secret agreements between prior Israeli governments and the Bush administration. The Israeli government says it agreed to the 2003 US-backed Road Map that called for a settlement freeze only on condition that it be allowed to violate the plan’s ban on expanding existing settlements.