As if things couldn’t get worse in this unprecedented rocky relationship between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, there’s always another reason of concern. Will President Obama actually punish Netanyahu for hosting the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, on his traditional Israel trip, Chemi Shalev wonders:
You can already imagine the fists that will be clenched and the teeth that will be gnashed in the White House in Washington when Israel rolls out the red carpet for Mitt Romney, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s preferred candidate for president in everything but explicit endorsement.
…If Romney goes on to win the elections, of course, Netanyahu’s gamble will pay handsome dividends, especially in a close contest in which Jewish voters in battleground states are perceived to have made all the difference. But if Obama wins – and the current odds are 50-50, no more and no less – Romney’s summer visit will add to the significant reservoirs of ill will that have already accumulated on both sides of the Israeli-American divide. Of course, people in Jerusalem might believe that things can’t get any worse, but in such situations, they usually do.
