Whether because of the midterm elections or because of the realization that the Obama Middle East policy has been an abject failure, it sure does seem that the landscape has changed. This report explains:

The Jerusalem building and planning committee on Monday approved plans for 32 new housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev.

The approval comes only days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, where Netanyahu agreed to advance talks with the Palestinian Authority. Chairman of the building and planning committee Kobi Kahalon had postponed a hearing on the building plan set for last week, so that it would not coincide with Netanyahu’s visit to the White House. …

While the houses approved on Monday will be built in a previously established neighborhood that the Palestinians have agreed in the past will stay part of Israel under a future final status agreement, the decision to approve the plan goes against a request made recently by the Palestinian Authority for a building freeze in all land seized in the Six Day War, as a pre-condition for a continuation of proximity talks.

So maybe the new Obama rule is “just don’t announce housing permits when you are visiting or when we are.” It’s still a restriction that no other nation must live with — but, hey, if that’s all it takes to hush up the Obami, it’s no big deal. And it doesn’t appear as though any of the preconditions and “confidence-building measures” concern Bibi right now. It is time to readjust the terms of the debate, and that is precisely what he aims to do.