The question of $10 billion in loan guarantees over a five-year period proved to be a central bone of contention between the Bush White House and the Shamir coalition of the Right and far Right in an election year for both regimes. There was initially an unspoken linkage between the loan guarantees and the building of new settlements in the West Bank and Gaza which the Bush administration believed to be an obstacle to peace in the area. This linkage became more public when the US secretary of state, James Baker, called for a settlement freeze in return for the release of the loan guarantees which were needed to secure loans from commercial banks. The White House wanted to review the loan guarantees scheme annually.