Washington: President Barack Obama clashed so often and so publicly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the first 16 months of his tenure that one Israeli newspaper reported Netanyahu believed Obama wanted a confrontation to improve US ties to the Arab world.
Then on May 31 came a moment that former US ambassador Martin Indyk says showed the real nature of Obama's policy toward Israel: the deadly raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza that unleashed a torrent of international criticism and a move in the United Nations to censure the Jewish state.
Obama responded by siding with Israel, shielding it from direct condemnation by the UN Security Council. In doing so, analysts including Indyk said, Obama showed he embraces the core policy of predecessors Bill Clinton and George W. Bush: The United States will give Israel unwavering diplomatic and military support even as tensions test their relationship.
In the last few months, the United States and Israel have butted heads over colonies, their leaders haven't appeared publicly together, and Israel's flotilla raid frayed US ties to Turkey, an important ally.
An especially strained moment came in March, when Israel announced it would build 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem, an area claimed by Palestinians, during a visit by Vice-President Joe Biden.
The move delayed indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that the United States has brokered and drew a reprimand from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Shortly afterward, Netanyahu met with Obama at the White House. They made no public appearance together, as is customary when a foreign leader visits.
Even earlier, Obama had put Israel and its supporters on edge when he went to Cairo in June 2009 to call for a "new beginning" between the United States and the Muslim world.
It was the Cairo speech that prompted Netanyahu's suspicion Obama was seeking a clash with Israel to bolster Arab ties, Haaretz reported on June 9, 2009, citing unidentified confidants of the prime minister.
The Obama administration, unlike its predecessors, "made a very public display on the [colonies]", Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said in an interview.
Because Netanyahu leads a "centre-right government", he said, "the pushback was greater than it had been maybe under a leftist government".
Palestinians are disappointed by what they see as Obama's shift toward Israel, said Mkhaimar Abu Sada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University in Gaza City. "The high hopes we had for the Obama administration have evaporated," Abu Sada said.
"He seems to have collided with the other institutions in American politics and cannot apply the pressure on Israel that is needed to stop colonies and push the peace process forward."
Strategic alliance
The strategic alliance has survived its challenges in large part because of mutual need, said Ziad Asali, president of the Washington-based American Task Force on Palestine, which according to its website works to promote a negotiated peace settlement giving Palestinians their own state.
"The warmth and friendship between the president of the United States and the prime minister is not there anymore, but the relationship is sound and solid," Asali said.
"The United States and Israel have too many things in common and too long a history of strategic relations to be seriously impacted by political differences."
The Obama administration must maintain strong ties to Israel to move forward on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Asali and David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The allies also are in sync facing the threat of a nuclear Iran.
While tensions are a natural part of the relationship, the two nations always settle into the "abiding reality" that they must work together, Indyk said.
Why has the US' attitude towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict changed since the beginning of Obama's tenure? Do you think Obama will fail to deliver on his promises to Muslim world?
