This reporting, which appeared last night, by Adam Montous at the WSJ is breathtaking. This article is such a blockbuster in that it has about a billion things that expose the utter disfunctionality of the US-Israel relationship and the utter contempt Obama, Netanyahu, and their respective administration have towards each other. The utter and complete entitlement of Netanyahu is jaw-dropping.
The relevant parts below, but you should really read the whole article cause its so shocking:
U.S. officials said Mr. Obama had a particularly combative phone call on Wednesday with Mr. Netanyahu, who they say has pushed the administration aside but wants it to provide Israel with security assurances in exchange for signing onto a long-term deal.
Today, many administration officials say the Gaza conflict—the third between Israel and Hamas in under six years—has persuaded them that Mr. Netanyahu and his national security team are both reckless and untrustworthy
A senior Obama administration official said the White House didn't intend to get into a "tit for tat" with the Israelis when the war broke out in Gaza. "We have many, many friends around the world. The United States is their strongest friend," the official said. "The notion that they are playing the United States, or that they're manipulating us publicly, completely miscalculates their place in the world."
A senior Obama administration official said the weapons transfers shouldn't have been a routine "check-the-box approval" process, given the context. The official said the decision to scrutinize future transfers at the highest levels amounted to "the United States saying 'The buck stops here. Wait a second…It's not OK anymore.' "
The last straw for many U.S. diplomats came on Aug. 2 when they say Israeli officials leaked to the media that Mr. Netanyahu had told the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, that the Obama administration was "not to ever second-guess me again" about how to deal with Hamas.
The White House and State Department have sought to regain greater control over U.S.-Israeli policy. They decided to require White House and State Department approval for even routine munitions requests by Israel, officials say.
Instead of being handled as a military-to-military matter, each case is now subject to review—slowing the approval process and signaling to Israel that military assistance once taken for granted is now under closer scrutiny.
http://online.wsj.com/...
So here's what we know:
-Israel goes around the WH to DOD for military equipment, which infuriates the WH and made them halt a new batch of hellfire missiles and make every other request go through the WH.
-WH is no longer worrying about airing dirty laundry cause they're mainly responsible for the leaks in that article, and they must be pissed. The SRA saying that Israel needs to know its place in the world is correct but should be said on the record.
-Netanyahu took a draft proposal from Kerry that was meant for him to look and relay back to Kerry what he disagreed with and brought it directly to a vote to his cabinet. They all voted it down and bad mouthed Kerry in press. This was a tipping point for the WH.
-This all culminated in a combative phone call between Obama and Netanyahu last night.
-Lastly, and unfortunately, the WH is still not willing to bring these breaches of trust directly out into the open. So long as Israel is not challenged in the court of public opinion, they'll continue to use congress to squeeze the WH.
-Lastly, the contrast between this episode and Hillary's Atlantic interview is amazing. Its no wonder the Israeli official quoted in the article says all they have to do is wait out Obama for 2 years.
UPDATE: Wait a sec, I post a diary at 6:30 AM with my morning coffee before work, come back after a long day and then see I made the rec list! Thanks folks, its much appreciated and its good to know it wasn't just me that nearly spit my coffee reading the article.
I honestly was so gobsmacked this morning and had to channel my anger into something, so I said I'd put up a diary at Dailykos before work, lol. Good to see it touched that same nerve with many of you:-)