“If we were, for a moment, to ignore the Pollard incident, the American administration has never been so humiliated by Israel.” I was told this on the evening of Jan. 21 by a senior Israeli diplomat currently serving. He told me so after having learned through the media — much like President Barack Obama — that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had arranged an invitation for himself to address both houses of Congress on Feb. 11, just five weeks before the Israeli elections on March 17.

The release of the invitation, which was concocted, planned and delivered in secret after weeks of surreptitious contacts, without Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro even knowing about it, had a dramatic effect. It was unlike anything that ever happened before in the bilateral relationship between the White House and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. Soon after the invitation hit the news, an Israeli diplomatic source in Washington described its effect as “shock and awe.” Another senior official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry told me, “Today, more than ever, I would like to be on the line during the phone call between Ambassador Shapiro and Prime Minister Netanyahu and his staff.”

Most of the outrage focused on the way it all happened. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to quote my American sources by name, but what was heard, written and said about the incident on both sides of the ocean on Jan. 21 was unprecedented. I therefore submit this edited summary instead: “It is no longer a matter of policy. We have no expectations of Netanyahu when it comes to that. It is a matter of basic human dignity. This kind of behavior is not the way people act. People don’t do things like that. The Israelis know how to pick up the phone every Monday and Thursday, screaming for help. There’s the Security Council. There’s The Hague [International Criminal Court]. They need an urgent veto. They need our support during Operation Protective Edge. They are not embarrassed to ask for our help, and we provide it to them, despite everything. We’ve increased funding for the air-defense Iron Dome system again and again. Security cooperation is at a record high. And yet, after all that, the president has to learn from the TV news that Netanyahu is coming to Washington? It is unprecedented. It is barbaric behavior. It is so impolite that it is disgraceful. It is simply inconceivable.''

In the hours following the release of the news, the embarrassed and confused Americans were busy collecting information, while at the same time gathering up the broken pieces that were left of their self-respect. They discovered that the invitation was concocted by the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, together with House Speaker John Boehner. Communications between these two men were kept absolutely secret until they bore results.