The announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday that the United States no longer views Israeli settlements on the West Bank as necessarily violating international law has done little to change the essential insecurity on both sides of the conflict’s front line.

While experts debated whether the announcement gave Israel a green light to annex parts of the West Bank or flouted established international law, the only practical effect in the West Bank on Tuesday was a subtle shift in morale: It left Israeli settlers feeling slightly more confident and Palestinians slightly more depressed.

“I love this declaration, because it fits with my ideology, my opinions,” said Yossi Leibovitz, 57, who has lived in Ofra for 23 years and, like most of his neighbors, identifies with Israel’s national-religious movement: Orthodox Jews and Zionists who believe that Israel’s sovereignty and Jewish population should sweep over the biblical land of Israel all the way to the Jordan River.

“But if you ask me if it will change anything, it will not,” Mr. Leibovitz said. “Because there will come another administration, and they will say something different.”