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Can Obama Protect Israel from Itself?

Ben Caspit calls on President Obama to set the boundaries for Israel.
U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 5, 2012.      REUTERS/Jason Reed   (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
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No one in Israel was surprised by the quotes from US President Barack Obama that appeared in Bloomberg News this week (Jan. 15). Jeffrey Goldberg, whose credibility is impeccable, gave us the goods that were given to him, but those goods were too little, too late. If this is how Obama gets back at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for pouring his heart and soul into the Romney campaign, he would have been better off saying nothing. Netanyahu did what no Israeli prime minister before him ever dared, and now he can pat himself on the back. He gambled and lost, but it cost him little.

I’m not trying to create a crisis between Israel and the United States. First of all, one already exists, in terms of the personal relationship between the two countries’ leaders. Second of all, I don’t have the privilege to do that. Israel without the United States is like a fish without water. It will flop around frantically for a while until it finally gives up.

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