Once Barack Obama made up his mind to push for a resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it became inevitable there would be an epic test of wills between the US president and Israel’s prime minister, the irredentist Benjamin Netanyahu.

So it has proved, with Mr Netanyahu responding provocatively to US demands for a total freeze on Israel’s colonisation of occupied Palestinian land by expanding the number of settlers – on Sunday, for instance, evicting Palestinian families in Arab east Jerusalem to make way for Jewish families.