Hillary Clinton boasted that she was the "designated yeller" at Israel's Prime Minister. And indeed that seems to have been her job.
According to Landler's book, Clinton and Netanyahu generally got along during her stint as Secretary of State, although there was plenty of tension.
While she called him by his nickname Bibi, "often it was attached to the f-word," he wrote.
Obama apparently pushed hard for her to get involved in the peace process. But Hillary Clinton was just doing the Secretary of State thing as prep for another White House run and had little interest in putting herself on the line for a doomed project.
Mere days before the speech White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel said to Clinton that Obama's decision not to visit Israel after his Cairo speech may insult Jerusalem, and therefore he asked Clinton who was in Cairo with Obama to go on to Israel "to do damage control."
But Landler quoted a former senior administration official who said "she couldn't, wouldn't and didn't."
Obama's senior advisers were furious at her refusal, according to the book, accusing her of trying to avoid harming her image as a friend of Israel.
More likely she didn't want to be seen as the cleanup crew.
Obama "chided her, telling her that she needed to travel to the Middle East more often and that she needed to become more personally involved in steering the process" instead of leaving the matter to special Middle East envoy George Mitchell, reveals Landler.
The gap between the two continued as Clinton held doubts over Obama's demand in 2009 that Netanyahu freeze construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem completely, reasoning that doing so would not be an effective way to force more concessions from Netanyahu...
Then a week later, Clinton condemned the "settlements," and said Obama demanded a total freeze, even as talks were ongoing between Mitchell and the Israeli government for a deal allowing construction in the large blocs of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, accommodating natural growth only.
According to Landler, Clinton's statements derailed the talks on a deal, angering the Israelis even as Obama's advisers were annoyed that she "plussed up" his position to encompass a complete freeze.
Diplomacy. Hillary Clinton isn't very good at it.