Despite the fact that Obama invited Netanyahu to visit Washington in the coming weeks that invitation does not hide the tensions simmering in the relationship between the two parties. Indeed, the invitation itself is a manifestation of that tension. It is no secret that Netanyahu was willing to meet with the U.S. President at the beginning of May and not within the month. Netenyahu sought to determine the time period in which he would be in Washington to attend the annual conference of AIPEC – the pro-Israeli official lobby – but the White House apologized for setting a date for Netanyahu in this period due to the busy agenda of the President and so Netanyahu canceled his participation in the conference and asked that Peres attend in his stead. And the significance of the story is only understood within its historical context. In practice, the Israeli Prime Minister attends the AIPEC Conference which is also attended by hundreds of state heads and senior American officials.
Often at the end the Israeli Prime Minister meets with U.S. President and is concerned with supporting Israel as witnessed by AIPEC. But Obama has chosen this time not to meet Netanyahu during the AIPEC demonstrations but invited him to meet him later. From here the story gets significant.
Obama's invitation is a message meaning that the meeting date is to be determined by the U.S. President and not Netanyahu nor AIPEC. Netanyahu's angry reaction was conveyed in a letter to AIPEC who failed to set an appointment with the president!
The truth is that this is not the first of a series of simmering tension between the White House and the Government of Netanyahu as it started even before the last post. For example, Netanyahu has made a crude statement to the press a few hours before taking his post in which he said that the priorities of U.S. President "must be" the reform of the U.S. economy and Iran. He added that Obama must see to Iran, or Israel will have to do it.
The Israeli arrogance did not stop at simply identifying the priorities of the U.S. president on his behalf, but it was clear over the past weeks that the Netanyahu Government is working against the priorities for the orderly management of Obama in the region, the latest of which was not only rejecting the statements of extremist Arab initiative to resolve the two countries, but the declaration during the Mitchell visit of the requirement to recognize the Jewish state so as to resume negotiations with the Palestinians. Even more Tel Aviv leaked news of the possibility of nominating Michael Oren as an ambassador in Washington who is close to the circles of neo-conservatives who openly attacked Obama during his campaign for the presidency and are opposed to the interests of Israel. It is no secret that Obama's administration in light of all this has started a wide scale movement in the halls of Congress which is a stronghold of support for Israel to inform members of what is going on as it happens in anticipation of a possible confrontation with the government of Netanyahu. In short, Obama is preparing for what appears to a courageous standoff and is determined to see his country benefit. But he needs a political cover, because it is a confrontation with the state and one of the most powerful American interest groups, and had ambitions with former U.S. presidents.
Unfortunately the dire situation of the Arabs and their reversed priorities are not visible to the source of the political cover and they will not be qualified to take advantage of such a confrontation. As for the political cover it is provided by American Jewish progressives, who publicly attacked the extremist Government and are regular anti-Netanyahu opponents and attack the performance of the AIPEC which for decades has become an instrument of Israel's Likud.
