The White House is stepping up its antagonism toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his victory in this week's elections, signaling that it is in no rush to repair a historic rift between the United States and Israel, the New York Times reported.
The sharpened tone indicates that the Obama administration may be re-evaluating its relationship with its closest ally in the Middle East, having lost patience with Netanyahu in the closing days of an election campaign in which he spotlighted deep disagreements with US President Obama over a Palestinian state and a nuclear deal with Iran.
"You reach a tipping point," said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel and Egypt. "It's the culmination of six and a half years of frustration, including some direct hits at the president’s prestige and the office of the presidency."
The aggressiveness underlines a calculation by Obama that an international accord with Iran to rein in its nuclear program is within reach despite Netanyahu's adamant opposition, and that there is little value in being more conciliatory toward him.
And, domestically, the administration is risking the alienation of a core Democratic constituency of Jewish voters, in part banking on the fact that many of them also are upset with Netanyahu.
In a congratulatory call to Netanyahu on Thursday that Obama waited two days to place, the president chided the prime minister for his pre-election declaration that no Palestinian state would be established on his watch.
Although Netanyahu has since tried to backtrack on those comments, Obama said that they had nonetheless forced his administration to reassess certain aspects of its policy toward Israel, according to a White House official who offered details of the call only on the condition of anonymity.
For the second consecutive day on Friday, the White House publicly questioned Netanyahu's sincerity about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, suggesting that Obama did not trust him to back Palestinian statehood, a central element of United States policy in the Middle East.