The public words Monday between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were “warm and friendly,” said the New York Post in an editorial, but there were clear signs of “fundamental disagreement” underneath. Netanyahu refused to endorse Obama’s top priority—establishing a separate Palestinian state—and Obama blithely downplayed the threat of Iranian nukes, Netanyau’s main concern. The historically tightknit U.S.-Israeli relationship is “entering unchartered waters.”
Obama’s “tough love” approach to Israel might start a “new chapter” in the 60-year-old friendship, said Elise Labott in CNN, but “no one expects a drastic change.” And while some Israelis worry that the Obama team’s tougher stance jeopardizes the “special strategic relationship” between the two nations, this new “evenhandedness” could help win over Arab nations to Obama’s approach to Mideast peace.
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