Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will again seek to blunt the political repercussions for releasing Palestinian prisoners who killed Israelis by announcing new housing tenders for communities located on land Israel acquired in the 1967 war simultaneous to the release. The release of 104 prisoners as a goodwill gesture to US Secretary of State John Kerry is enormously unpopular among Israelis. On Wednesday, a government official said the new tenders would follow next week’s release – the third group to be set free – which is particularly unpopular because it comes against a backdrop of escalating terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. In the past week, an Israeli-Arab worker was killed by sniper fire and a tragedy was averted when passengers on a bus in a Tel Aviv suburb were evacuated seconds before a bomb exploded on-board. There is no doubt that the announcement of the new housing starts will anger the Obama administration, and the European Union has explicitly warned Netanyahu not to make the gesture.