WASHINGTON (JTA) — Obama administration officials have long contended that the friction between the US president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not personal and that American support for Israel remains as robust as ever — and arguably even more robust by some metrics.
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But a year of tense and angry exchanges between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu has yielded an atmosphere of deep mistrust, with each side insinuating the other is acting in bad faith. Conversations with current and former officials from both countries, as well as with Jewish community sources, suggest that there is a deeply personal dimension to the mistrust, with each leader and his aides ascribing malevolent motives to the other side.
“Part of the reason there’s a presumption of bad faith is that the channels of communication aren’t working,” said Ilan Goldenberg, until last year the chief of staff on the State Department’s Middle East peace team. “When you don’t talk to the other side a lot, you assume bad faith.”
Accusations of bad faith are sharpest in conversations behind closed doors, but the acrimony has found its way into what would normally be routine statements of friendship.
Congratulating Netanyahu on May 7 on forming a new government, the White House said that it “looked forward” to discussing with Israel’s leaders “the importance of pursuing a two-state solution” — a pointed rejoinder to Netanyahu, who pledged on the eve of his reelection not to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch, though he subsequently clarified that he remains committed to a two-state solution but conditions are not yet ripe for it.
Notably, when another conservative prime minister of an allied nation won a surprise reelection this week — Britain’s David Cameron — Obama’s message avoided mention of policy disagreements and spoke of “building on an already close relationship” between the two leaders, a personal touch that was lacking from the Netanyahu statement.
Netanyahu also routinely laces statements with barely veiled gibes at Obama and his team, as he did in a May 3 statement in Jerusalem following a meeting with visiting Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Referring to a possible nuclear deal with Iran, Netanyahu pushed back at “those who tell us that this will not endanger Israel.”
“I have to tell you as the prime minister of Israel responsible for Israel’s security, it endangers Israel, it endangers the region, it endangers the world — the entire world in my opinion,” Netanyahu said.
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