US wanted to hurt Israel

Make No Excuses. But The Obama Administration Was Not At All Surprised By The Israeli Decision To Build In East Jerusalem.

· Marty Peretz

· March 14, 2010 | 9:03 pm

In fact, Israel explicitly told them that it would, and Washington--with some regret, to be sure--accepted the fact.

So why are the Obami having such conniptions? Because they’ll do anything and everything to pacify the Palestinians, and that’s because the president has a special place in his heart for these zealots who aspire neither to democracy nor to social justice but to revenge on historical progress which they bitterly repelled. Like the rest of the Arab peoples for whom Obama seems also to have undeserved and unrequited affection.

As for the Jerusalem expectations of the administration, here’s a short and irreproachable primer from Barry Rubin.

The fact is that the Obama folk are orchestrating this sturm und drang between allies, and one of the (predictable) results is that the Palestinians will become increasingly demanding and recalcitrant. Just wait and see.

An article in Ha’aretz reports on the inflammatory remarks made this morning by David Axelrod, who has absolutely no intellectual authority on the Israel-Palestine question. But he can be counted on to be inflammatory on the subject. After all, that’s his job.