Obama's burst of enthusiasm for Shimon Peres, on the death of the Israeli left-wing political figure, had nothing to do with any personal affection. It was a cynically calculated political move. From the flags flown at half-staff to the delegation (an honor he failed to extent to Thatcher) to the overdone speech that clearly a whole bunch of Jewish staffers and associates had labored over, this was about politics.
It wasn't about Peres. It was about an opportunity to stick his thumb in Netanyahu's eye.
Obama's speech was not only a vigorous defense of the failed negotiations and concessions to the PLO. A disastrous program often associated with Peres. It was a series of cynical attacks on Peres'"critics to the right". It doesn't take much knowledge to attach one name to that nameless bunch.
Netanyahu.
Peres lost his last election to Netanyahu. He had gambled on using the elections to gain a mandate for his unpopular peace process with the PLO. Instead the Israeli people picked Netanyahu.
This enraged the Clintons who managed to use every dirty trick to force Netanyahu out of office by interfering in Israeli politics. Obama has tried and failed to do the same thing. This spectacle is not about honoring Peres. It's about exploiting his death to attack Netanyahu while pushing the same old policies of terrorist appeasement that the Israeli people have rejected again and again.