U.S. Vice President Joe Biden praised planned low-level peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians this week as "a moment of real opportunity" - just as a member of the Israeli government seemed to ruin the party by announcing a new batch of settlements on Israeli-occupied land. German commentators express unanimous disappointment.

It was meant to be the start of "indirect talks," a small step to revive the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, which were stalled even before Israel's fierce incursion into Gaza near the end of 2008 and the start of 2009. "I think we are at a moment of real opportunity," said U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday in Jerusalem, throwing official American goodwill on the latest approach to peace. "I think that the interests of the Israeli and Palestinian people, if everybody stops and takes a deep breath, are actually more in line than they are opposites." He added, for good measure, that U.S. government policy was firmly in line with Israel's need for self-defense.

While this diplomatic theater played out before the news cameras, Israel's Interior Ministry, run by the ultra-orthodox party Shas, made an awkwardly timed announcement that a plan to build 1,600 new settlement homes in occupied East Jerusalem would go ahead. Palestinians have demanded a freeze on Israeli settlement building in the run-up to any peace talks.

Vice President Biden was reportedly so outraged that he kept Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waiting an hour and a half to start a formal dinner on Tuesday evening. He used strong language to "condemn" the move. But so far no one in Jerusalem has moved to reverse the building order, and Palestinian officials around President Mahmoud Abbas have said the indirect talks planned for next week will collapse if nothing changes.