Report: President Obama will no longer “waste his time” speaking to Netanyahu

Once again, the Obama administration has never been a friend to Israel. The only question remaining: will the President be able to swallow his rage or will he continue to undermine relations with one of America's strongest allies?

From the JPost:

In the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resounding victory in Tuesday’s election, the White House has expressed severe concern regarding the Likud leader’s campaign rhetoric and noted turnaround against the establishment of a Palestinian state.

According to several administration officials, the Obama administration is now seriously considering agreeing to the passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution “embodying the principles of a two-state solution that would include Israel’s 1967 borders with Palestine and mutually agreed swaps of territory,” according to The New York Times.

Although the relationship between Israel and the United States would remain strong, according to administration officials, it would not be managed by US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu. Instead, US Secretary of State John Kerry, one of Netanyahu’s only remaining friends in the president’s administration, would take over along with Pentagon officials who handle the close military alliance with Israel.

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“The President is a pretty pragmatic person and if he felt it would be useful, he will certainly engage. But he’s not going to waste his time.

“The premise of our position internationally has been to support direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. We are now in a reality where the Israeli government no longer supports direct negotiations.

"Therefore we clearly have to factor that into our decisions going forward,” a senior White House official told The New York Times.

Netanyahu's win is clearly President Obama's loss. The President used all his political clout, sent his own campaign people to defeat Bibi, dissed him in public and thru "open mike" comments by Kerry, was impolite to an ally (although quite polite to the Brotherhood, the Saudi King and the Iranians), used his full force as President to undermine Bibi's speech and did not even have the dignity to congratulate him on is victory.

Whatever else you think of him, Netanyahu is clearly a brave man. So it must have been galling for Obama to see a brave man stand before him, tell him what he did not want to hear, oppose the President of the most powerful nation on earth--for a principle--for what he thought was right—like David facing Goliath, to protect his nation--and then win.

Obama believes in a world where international conflict can be resolved in a framework of tolerance, non-aggression and the rule of law. But he is unable to recognise that some cannot be persuaded to embrace it and instead negotiate not to achieve resolution but to gain advantage.

For these states, endless diplomacy evolves into wishful thinking. This prevents the framing of realistic policies that would protect America and its allies.

Obama is unable to recognize that some states cannot be persuaded to embrace his vision. Also, he cannot accept that Israel, a major ally, faces enemies who do not embrace peaceful resolution and are a greater threat to Israel than the United States.

Endless diplomacy evolves into wishful thinking. The President's dream becomes to him more powerful than reality and abandoning it would make him irrelevant. His attitude prevents developing realistic policies that would protect America and its allies.