November 5, 2014 --

The focus of attention to Jeffrey Goldberg's Atlantic article on tensions between Washington and Jerusalem was the insulting expletive directed by "a senior Obama administration official" at Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Attention was also given the assertion from "another senior official" that the Israeli prime minister was a "coward."

LPR did not seem much comment, however, on the context of the "coward" insult -- the failure of Netanyahu to order the Israeli air force to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities! Nor did LPR hear or read any comment on Goldberg's suggestion that after the mid-term elections, President Obama "will be much less interested in defending Israel from hostile resolutions at the United Nations. where Israel is regularly scapegoated." Goldberg, wondering that the administration will announce its two-state solution for Israel and the Palestine Authority after the elections, including maps delineating boundaries, wrote that he does nor recall "such a period of sustained and mutual contempt" between the U.S. and Israel.

Apparently Mr. Goldberg is not familiar with U.S. diplomacy after Israel was invaded, in 1948, by Arab states seeking Israel's obliteration . The State Department regularly tried to underm ine President Truman's support for Israel, first by suggesting that the Palestine partition plan be dropped in favor of UN trusteeship, then by seeking to remove the Negev from the e territory of the Jewish State, and, throughout raising the threat of UN sanctions against Israel.

The State Department even threatened Israel with sanctions if its leaders would not settle for an armistice and, instead, demanded a peace treaty with Jordan (then Transjordan). It should be noted that by the the middle of November, 1948, the State Department determined "that Arab Palestine standing alone could not constitute a viable independent state. By the end of 1948, the State Department recommended that "Arab Palestine" should be incorporated into Transjordan.

House Speaker John Boehner, criticizing the "disrespectful rhetoric" employed by the administration against Israel, remarked: "When the president discusses Israel and Iran, it is sometimes hard to tell who he thinks is America's friend and who he thinks is America's enemy...." Boehner suggested that this is no way to treat an ally.

For LPR, "ally" is not the appropriate term to describe Israel's relationship vis-a-vis the Obama administration. If Israel is an "ally" of the U.S., why will Jonathan Pollard die in prison for being an Israeli agent? If Israel is a U.S. "ally, " would senior administration officials impute cowardice to the prime minister of Israel? ( Imagine the government head of a member of NATO called a "chickens--t" by administration officials.)

That the senior administration officials insulted Netanyahu under cloak of anonymity is, certainly, no indication of courage on their part. Seems to LPR that there is rather more hostility in the administration for Israel than for countries or entities that people outside of the administration would consider our enemies of the U.S.