This is, like, the lifelong dream of the New Left, you know: “President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the United States would “reassess” aspects of its relationship with Israel after Netanyahu’s provocative statements leading up to Tuesday’s Israeli election.” …’Provocative.’ Ostensibly, this is all about Netanyahu’s supposed rejection of a two-state solution*, but let’s be honest. This real problem is pretty straightforward: Barack Obama got humiliated in public by an Israeli Jew.

Oh!  Was I not supposed to say that aloud?  …It fascinates me, sometimes, what can and cannot be said in this culture.  I mean, it’s blatantly obvious that Barack Obama has no use for Israel: he’s an urban politician who has been steeped for decades in academia and progressive politics.  You think groups like Stormfront hate Israel? It doesn’t compare at all to the frothing disdain that erupts in faculty lounges and dinner parties across this country on a regular basis. In some ways, I’m kind of impressed that President Obama isn’t being worse.

But he’s not being particularly good here, either.  To be brutally honest about the situation, Barack Obama is allowing his fit of pique at being politically shown up again to combine with the limitations of his somewhat limited and parochial upbringing** to create a situation where Netanyahu Israel must be, well, put in its place.  This sort of thinking is obnoxious, of course: but it is also drearily familiar to anybody who has studied monarchical systems of government. It is always a temptation for the King to confuse setbacks for him with setbacks for the realm.

Yes, I know: Barack Obama is not a king. I agree.  Now go convince him.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*It would be more accurate to say that Netanyahu has more or less accepted that the Palestinians only want a one-state solution.  One where there isn’t a Jew to be seen.

**I refer, of course, to his Ivy League and community organizing years.  After all, by all accounts Indonesia enjoys a thriving multicultural society.