Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a partial ten-month freeze on West Bank settlements. The Obama administration praised Netanyahu’s decision, but Palestinians leaders said it fell short of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s call for a full halt to settlement construction as a condition for reviving peace negotiations. Netanyahu’s plan has two major loopholes: construction will continue on 3,000 previously authorized settler homes, and the moratorium does not apply to occupied East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, a pro-settler group has petitioned Israel’s High Court to stop Israel from enforcing Netanyahu’s partial freeze on settlements.