Obama is furious?

US President Barack Obama is angry at Israel. He’s livid. He’s downright furious (William Jacobson, “Obama furious Israel found out Iran nuke deal secrets and told Congress”, Legal Insurrection, March 23, 2015).

He’s been spitting-livid since January 21, 2015. That’s when Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an invitation from outside the White House to speak to Congress about Iran (Norvell Rose, “Here’s How A Furious Obama White House Is Reportedly Freaking Out Over Israel’s Defiant Netanyahu”, westernjournalism, January 23, 2015).  

Since that moment, the White House has had ‘punish Israel’ branded on its brain. White House officials have declared that accepting that invitation was ‘spitting’ in Obama’s face. Israel, these officials said, would pay a price for that affront (“WILL PAY A PRICE”: [Senior Advisor to President Obama] Valerie Jarrett Promises To Hurt Israel, Netanyahu For “Spitting In Obama’s Face” Over Iran Nukes”, before it’s news, February 2, 2015).

The administration lost no time getting to that punishment. First, Israeli news reported that a former high-ranking Obama campaign official, Jeremy Bird, had shown up in Tel Aviv to open an office. That office looked “like a television set for a series about a presidential campaign” (Roy Arad, “The Obama campaign strategist who could break the Israeli elections wide open”, Haaretz, January 26, 2015).  It wasn’t. It was an office for a real campaign--to unseat Netanyahu in Israel’s upcoming national election.

Following that, the US stopped sharing with Israel information from its talks with Iran (Gil Ronen, “Report: US 'Punishing' Israel by Not Updating it on Iran Talks”, Arutz Sheva, February 15, 2015).

Following that, Netanyahu committed two unforgivable ‘sins’. First, as campaigning ended, he supposedly said that if elected, he’d reject the two-state solution. Second, on election day, he made what the US characterized as racist remarks against Arabs voting in the election.

Obama quickly punished Netanyahu for his supposed sins. First, he rebuked Netanyahu for those ‘Arab’ comments. Second, he declared that he will now ‘reassess’ everything regarding Israel (Jim Kuhnhenn, “In Netanyahu Call, Obama Says US Reassessing Peace Approach”, ABC News, March 19, 2015). Third, he specifically suggested that this might be the right time to stop protecting Israel altogether at the UN (“Obama might stop vetoing UNSC Resolutions re: Israel after Netanyahu rejected Palestinian state”, informed comment, March 21, 2015).

The Obama story-line seemed clear. Israel has acted badly towards the US. Netanyahu has acted badly.

Netanyahu rejected peace. He was racist.

It was a good story line—but a false one. On March 23, 2015, for example, we learned why Netanyahu had spoken about ‘Arabs’ voting on election day. It hadn’t been a racist comment at all. It was a reference to US interference.

The US didn’t just ‘meddle’ in Israel’s election; it had been particularly proactive in its interference (Ari Yashar, “Bibi's Strategist: Obama Meddled More Than You Know”, Arutz Sheva, March 23, 2015). That interference was a US-sponsored effort to unite Israeli Arabs against Netanyahu (ibid). According to Arutz Sheva, US State Department personnel expedited visas for (Israeli) Arab leaders to come to the US to learn how to organize Arabs to vote against Netanyahu (ibid).

Israeli officials now believe that this interference came directly from the White House (Avi Issacharoff, “Official: White House was part of bid to oust Netanyahu”, Times of Israel).

If this is true, we’re not just looking at ‘meddling’. We’re talking about outright interference from Obama’s office.

We also know now why Netanyahu had delivered his speech to Congress in the first place. His reason had nothing to do with electioneering.

It had to do with spying.

While spying on Israel, US Intelligence says it has learned that Israel (horror of horrors) had been spying on the US (Gil Ronen, “Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says White House”, Arutz Sheva, March 24, 2015). The Wall Street Journal had a story about that spying.

From eavesdropping on the Iran talks, Americans claimed, Israel found out something Obama didn’t want anyone to know: he had been engaging in secret negotiations with Iran—and had kept details of those negotiations concealed from Congress (Legal Insurrection, above).  Israel found out—and told Congress earlier in the year what it had learned.

That’s what caused the US fury over the Netanyahu’s speech (Legal Insurrection, ibid). That fury hadn’t been provoked because Netanyahu hadn’t followed protocol for speaking to Congress. It was provoked because Obama had been caught ‘cheating’ on Congress (Elliot Jager, “Israeli Officials: Iran Real Source of Obama's Fury at Netanyahu”, newsmax, March 23, 2015).

In addition, the administration appears to have floated the bogus story that Netanyahu had selfishly gone to Congress to help his re-election campaign. But according to the Journal, Netanyahu had come because he saw the US potentially completing a very bad deal with Iran, in secret; he came to protect Israel’s security (ibid), not his re-election bid (ibid).  

Barack Obama is furious. He wants Israel to surrender ancestral Jewish homeland to those who would destroy the Jewish nation—and he’s furious that Israel rejects doing that. 

He’s furious that Israel defends itself. He’s furious that Israel has chosen Netanyahu to lead. He’s furious that Netanyahu won his election despite American efforts to unseat him.

Obama is furious?