Bibi and Obama were all smiles and handshakes yesterday, but there is lots of speculation that the tensions between the two administrations remain.

This sounds about right to me:

Obama is not convinced that Netanyahu is serious in his declared intentions regarding the process, and the Israeli premier is not confident that the current American administration is committed to maintaining the same relations with Israel as those held by its predecessors.

Of course, these are two sides of the same coin. If Netanyahu’s government was more serious about negotiating a two-state solution, the Obama administration wouldn’t be so annoyed with it. The reverse argument – that Obama is inherently anti-Israel – doesn’t hold.

Even though DC is quite hot in July, it is not going to seem that way to Netanyahu. The US is Israel’s strongest ally and the country would be far more isolated if the US did not defend it. Continued isolation of Gaza, expanding Jewish suburbs in Jerusalem, and building more settlements in the West Bank seem like pretty pathetic reasons to destroy a close relationship with the US.

Tzipi Livni, Head of the Opposition Kadima Party in Israel and former Foreign Minister:

Both of [my parents] were in the Irgun. They were freedom fighters…they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons.

Perhaps I am reading this wrong, but it sure sounds like an endorsement of terrorism to me (even the Government of Israel said the Irgun was a terrorist organization – it did, you know, blow up stuff and kill people). Maybe her parents were the good kind of terrorist, while today we only have the bad type.

For a long time, I have thought Obama has a particularly long to-do list. Steve Benen agrees with me:

Since then [April 2009] – in addition to the two wars, economic crises, and global flu pandemic — it’s been hard to keep up the pressing and immediate challenges on the Obama administration’s to-do list. We’ve seen natural disasters (Haiti’s earthquake, Nashville’s flooding, Oklahoma’s tornadoes), man-made disasters (the BP oil spill), default crises (Dubai, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal), foreign policy crises (North Korea, Israel), and attempted terrorist attacks (Abdulmutallab on Christmas, Shahzad in Times Square).

I can only assume that it’s fairly common for President Obama to wake up, receive his morning briefings, and say, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Well, nobody made him run for president.

Netanyahu might want to consider quitting while he’s behind. When you’re in a hole, its often best to stop digging.

More biting op-eds from Ha’aretz:

Gideon Levy:

The time has come to take off our hats to the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu’s predictions have proved accurate, and his prophecies are coming true right before our eyes. Now we can proudly declare that our government is led by a man of vision, a statesman who has foretold the future. Even his greatest critics can’t deny it; the facts speak for themselves.

Netanyahu said the whole world is against us. Wasn’t he right? He also said we live under an existential threat. Isn’t it beginning to look like that? Give it another minute and Turkey will be at war with us too. Netanyahu said there’s no chance of reaching an agreement with the Arabs. Wasn’t that spot on? Our prime minister, who saw danger lurking in every alleyway and enemies waiting around every corner, who has always taught that there is no hope, who has drummed into us that we shall forever live by the sword (just as his father the historian taught him ), knew what he was talking about.

Merav Michaeli:

Israel is in thrall to a destructive, vicious cycle, like that of a drug addict or a violent man, which repeats itself (with some variations ) at every turn. Each time the cycle becomes shorter, and a suicidal ending seems inevitable at the moment.

It happens like this: Israel uses immense force to attack an immeasurably smaller and weaker entity, which it perceives as nothing less than a dangerous enemy threatening its existence. By attacking, Israel inflicts huge damage to many people, among them the innocent or the presumed innocent, and causes itself enormous damage because the world is furious at it.

Israel once again feels threatened and defends itself by further entrenchment – physical, military and diplomatic. All proposals for change are seen as a threat, and Israel does its best to reject them…

There is nothing to investigate. This is the situation; everyone knowns it. We just have to decide whether to go on like this, or take a deep breath and choose a different path.

David Grossman in The Guardian:

Above all, this insane operation shows how far Israel has declined. There is no need to overstate this claim. Anyone with eyes to see understands and feels it. Already there are those here who seek to spin the natural and justified sense of Israeli guilt into a strident assertion that the whole world is to blame. Our shame, however, will be harder to live with.