The Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations Is Officially Here

BIBI 'CHICKEN(*)(*)(*)(*)'

Jeffrey Goldberg | theatlantic.com | Oct 28 2014, 2:52 PM ET
Excerpts:

"The Obama administration's anger is "red-hot" over Israel's settlement policies, and the Netanyahu government openly expresses contempt for Obama's understanding of the Middle East. Profound changes in the relationship may be coming.

The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. "The thing about Bibi is, he's a chicken(*)(*)(*)(*)," this official said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname.

This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis.

The relationship between these two administrations - dual guarantors of the putatively "unbreakable" bond between the U.S. and Israel - is now the worst it's ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections.

By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.

The fault for this breakdown in relations can be assigned in good part to the junior partner in the relationship, Netanyahu, and in particular, to the behavior of his cabinet. Netanyahu has told several people I've spoken to in recent days that he has "written off" the Obama administration, and plans to speak directly to Congress and to the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached.

Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and "Aspergery." From time to time, current and former administration officials have described Netanyahu as a national leader who acts as though he is mayor of Jerusalem, which is to say, a no-vision small-timer who worries mainly about pleasing the hardest core of his political constituency. (President Obama, in interviews with me, has alluded to Netanyahu's lack of political courage.)

What does all this unhappiness mean for the near future? For one thing, it means that Netanyahu - who has preemptively "written off" the Obama administration - will almost certainly have a harder time than usual making his case against a potentially weak Iran nuclear deal, once he realizes that writing off the administration was an unwise thing to do.

This also means that the post-November White House will be much less interested in defending Israel from hostile resolutions at the United Nations, where Israel is regularly scapegoated. The Obama administration may be looking to make Israel pay direct costs for its settlement policies.

Netanyahu, and the even more hawkish ministers around him, seem to have decided that their short-term political futures rest on a platform that can be boiled down to this formula: "The whole world is against us. Only we can protect Israel from what's coming." For an Israeli public traumatized by Hamas violence and anti-Semitism, and by fear that the chaos and brutality of the Arab world will one day sweep over them, this formula has its charms.

But for Israel's future as an ally of the United States, this formula is a disaster."

read more:
http://www.theatlantic.com/internat...s-israel-relations-is-officially-here/382031/
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IMO: It appears that the United States and Israel are finally getting a divorce for irreconcilable differences thru it's two primary players and I think it is about time...we have been floating them for too long, for no good reason. Netanyahu has been blustering with anger at President Obama because Obama will not go along with his plans ...for which Netanyahu needs the U.S. cash, soldiers, and war equipment. His inability to get a blanket OK from Obama is making him crazy.

This is an ultimate victory for President Obama who can freeze Yetanyahu until he begs for the back-up he needs to accomplish his leadership in yet another war in the middle-east. He has seriously misjudged President Obama, who is a careful, cautious, thoughtful president who will not put America into another war like the 2 Bush NeverEndig Wars.

We need to unload Netanyahu and Israel and let them find their own future on their own terms as a nation, without the United States holding their hand. We can now use that yearly gratuitous amount of money we give Israel - for creation of jobs here at home.

 

IMO, Barack Obama and his minions will support any enemy of the U.S. and dump anyone who supports the U.S. Perhaps the Party of Hatred is gasping.

Perhaps the leftists in the White House consider Bibi chicken(*)(*)(*)(*) but Americans consider the leftists in the White House to be (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s.

 

"divorce from Israel". Dude, there are so many private defense contractors that make so much money for themselves and our gvt through Israel. We will always be allies. hahahahahahahahahahaha

 

Oh no. Does this mean drawing yet another 'red line', only to later deny drawing a red line?

 

Why do you support a foreign leader over your own President?

 

Actually why is there so much animosity from our president, you know, the one who claims the world loves me?

More leadership failure by the inept liar in the white house

 

Why hasn't President Obama fired the senior official who said this? That person has no business being a senior official at the White House having anything to do with foreign affairs.

 

Ask me.

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They'd have to fire the whole bunch of them.

And that's a damn good idea!

And we all know Benjamin Netanyahu is anything but a coward.

Too bad no one in the Eboma regime can say the same.

 

Obama got a pass on this the first time but his foreign policy has revealed itself to be so inept that his position on Israel may sink Democrats in 2016.

 

It's a no brainer when one sees our own president cuddle up to the Muslim Brotherhood while he's pushing Israel away.
The real question is, why would someone blindly support a leader siding with terrorists?

 

Mostly all the average voting age citizen knows is what the in-the-tank-for-Obama media outlets have told them to think about Obama. The rest is history.

 

Don't worry about it. In a mere two years a real president (Left or Right) will replace the current Clown Prince in the Oval Office and then the U.S. and Israeli relationship will return to a functional norm. Amateur hour in the White House will be a thing of the past and functional adults will once again run this country. Netanyahu will simply wait out the Lame Duck of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. So . . . no sweat.

 

Ha! Remember that it was even grotesquely funnier than that? Obama standing there with a figurative stick of red chalk in his hand actually had the gall to claim that . . . it wasn't HIS red line. I think that even the chronically sycophantic Mainstream Media choked a little bit while swallowing that particular bit of political slime from their holy Anointed One. Many of them could be seen grimacing while swallowing.

 

Expect a lot of pandering from "Jewish roots" Clinton soon.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-has-jewish-roots/

I guess one of her grandmothers by marriage was Jewish... so... there ya go.

 

You do know that Obama loathes Britain?

 

the irony is delicious.

 

Any trace of irony in my post will almost certainly remain forever a mystery, but I don't doubt for a minute that you find the illusory sense of intellectual superiority associated with said mystery more delectable than the finest champagne.

 

The depth of hatred for their President by The Crazy is something that I find sad. Not shocking though. The admiration they feel for Putin is well known so I suppose the knee-jerk allegiance to Bibi is really not surprising. My Israeli colleagues here actually support Obama and think the American right wing wackos do great harm to Israel by encouraging Bibi, who they think is just concerned with himself - not Israel. Strange juxtaposition, eh?

 

Netanyahu is a neo-Zionist and hard right wing politician whose objective is the annexation of all of the west bank. He has NO INTEREST in the establishment of a Palestinian state or a peace deal with the Palestinians. that is not to say that there are lots of Palestinians most notably the Islamist parties who share this lack of interests because they actually do want the "liberation of all of historic Palestine".

Apparently you don't know much about Israeli politics. He is the Prime Minister but his party only garnered 19 of a total 120 Knesset seats. He hardly speaks for all Israelis.
Of course I am not surprised that many Americans have no clue what a coalition government is and how it is forced to operate.

But feel free to admire the duplicitous war monger. Apparently his type has a certain appeal to many conservatives.

As I said the irony is delicious. No intellectual superiority required, but superior knowledge sure is.

 

I don't see any "crisis in U.S.-Israel relations".
The vast majority of Americans still strongly backs Israel.
And Obama regime is as much anti-American as anti-Semitic.

(Rev. Wright 2001)

(Obama 2006)

Brainwashed cult member as President ...

 

What a weak president we have.

America will be much better off after he's gone. He's done his damage, him and his Muslim friends.

 

Not just "weak".

But a brainwashed member of anti-American cult.

 

I read this "crisis" [less or more real ...] as a clear electoral move by this administration [with some pressure from some sectors of the party supporting it] to show independence from Israel in a sensitive moment [Mid Term elections are coming in US].

Frankly speaking I would wait for the end of November, with the results of the elections consolidated in the new composition of the Congress, to interpret this "escalation" in the diplomatic confrontation with Israel.

Note that Tel Aviv is acting as usual, it's the administration at Washington that this time is overreacting ...

 

Why? We've held the Two-State Position, only for Israel to resist its implementations one way or the other. At least Iran *is* talking(though they've never flexed their muscles nationally), Israel on the other hand has refused to sign the NPT. A Crucial blow in talks if I were POTUS. When I learned they also didn't sign the Chemical Weapons Resolution, that was another blow in Relations.

Finally, their cowardly conduct of terrorizing the Palestinians through deliberate air warfare, destroying homes and INTL Shelters under the guise of 'combat' had to be WW2-ish. So much for "never again".

I would be so much more hawkish than Obama on this issue. You'd be reading "Ties broken: America declares neutrality from Israel, will reverse the imposition on the 1967 Mandate and demand its enforcement."

 

Polls still show strong American support for Israel, the validity of the two-state approach is not the key to winning an election, positions relative to the polling are more important.

Edit: latest poll I found puts support at 64% for Israel, 23% Palestinians, 13% undecided.