(Art by Edgar Davidson)
Obama likes to claim that he has Israel's back.
“The people of Israel must always know America has its back,” he proclaimed last year.
In 2012, he had Israel's back. "President Obama reaffirmed his staunch commitment to Israel on Sunday, making clear in no uncertain terms that “I have Israel’s back.” But, at the same time, he urged Israel and its supporters to allow time for diplomacy and “crippling” sanctions on Iran to take hold to halt Tehran’s nuclear program."
Now? Still has Israel's back. All the better to sink a knife into it.
The Middle East Quartet, made up of the US, EU, UN, and Russia, is scheduled to release a major policy report later in coming weeks, and senior diplomats involved in its drafting have indicated that the US is taking a far harder line on Israel than in the past.
While in the past the US worked to soften some of the criticism against Israel leveled by the EU, UN, and Russia, now, say officials working on the Quartet report, US diplomats are pushing for harsher language against the Jewish state.
One diplomat said the report was the Obama administration’s way of putting Israel “on notice” that its patience was wearing thin.
It always seems to be. It was wearing thin in '09 when Obama had just arrived. It might be more accurate to say that it was never there.