JERUSALEM — Israeli settlers on Friday downplayed White House criticism of settlement construction, instead looking forward to Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming meeting with Donald Trump, while Palestinians said the settlers’ hard-line stance — with the new U.S. administration’s blessing — could spell the end to a two-state solution to the conflict.

President Trump has been perceived as sympathetic to the settlements, an issue at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict that was a frequent source of friction between his predecessor, Barack Obama, and Netanyahu. Israeli nationalists now believe they have an ally in the White House, and have made no secret they will push for more settlements in the West Bank.

But on Thursday, the White House said that though the administration doesn’t “believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal.”

The unexpected warning came just hours after Netanyahu vowed to establish the first new West Bank settlement in over two decades “as soon as possible,” promising to make up for a court-ordered demolition of an illegal settlement outpost.

Israeli security forces dismantled Amona earlier in the day amid clashes between police and dozens of hard-line settlers who had barricaded themselves inside a synagogue.

Oded Revivi, the chief foreign envoy of the Yesha settlers’ council, said his group “thanks the White House for asserting that our communities were never an impediment to peace.” Using the biblical name for the West Bank he said “nothing is more natural and morally just than Jews building in Judea.”

“We look forward to working closely with our friends in the new Trump administration to build a brighter future all,” he added.

The settler movement is a potent political force in Israel, and Netanyahu’s narrow nationalist coalition government is dominated by settlers and their supporters.

The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem along with the Gaza Strip — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for their state. The Palestinians and much of the international community consider all Israeli settlements illegal and view them as a hindrance to reaching a two-state solution to the conflict.

Husam Zomlot, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said “this statement of the White House is in the right direction, but we need more than words to protect the two-state solution, otherwise we will find nothing to talk about when President Trump” unveils his policies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.