Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu began serving as their countries’ leaders at about the same time, in early 2009. Netanyahu’s term could have continued until the fall of 2013, but he chose to shorten it in an effort to obtain a new mandate in an early election, which will be held just a day after the president is to take the oath of office in Washington.
The goal was transparent: not to allow Obama, should he be reelected (as indeed happened), to conduct a Middle East policy whose expected clash with Netanyahu’s would cause Israeli voters to prefer one of the prime minister’s rivals. That is precisely what happened in the 1992 election, which Yitzhak Shamir lost to Yitzhak Rabin due in part to the former’s confrontation with President George Bush.
To date, Netanyahu’s plan has reaped a measure of success. Ever since his victory over Mitt Romney, Obama has been busy with domestic affairs, such as bargaining with congressional Republicans over raising taxes and cutting the budget, appointing new cabinet secretaries, and filling other senior positions in his second administration. Obama has not yet had time to deal with the world in general and Israel in particular.
Anyone who hoped Obama would break his silence and reveal his views to the Israeli public has thus far been disappointed. Only his close associates - like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who described Netanyahu in harsh terms as having erred by betting on the wrong horse (Romney) - have given expression to the state of mind that the president apparently shares.
On Tuesday, Obama’s associates went a step further, via quotes published in a column by journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. The contents of this column reveal that Obama has despaired of Netanyahu, whom he views as having self-destructive policies, and that he thinks the man who heads both the Likud and the government is dooming Israel to international isolation.
These statements are at odds with Netanyahu’s campaign advertisements, which depict the prime minister as a statesman welcome overseas, and especially in Washington. And they are food for thought, served up to Israeli citizens before they retreat into their shell of apathy and elect a right-wing government comprised of Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Habayit Hayehudi and the ultra-Orthodox parties, which will lead the country into a confrontation with Obama and the rest of the world.
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