Dana Milbank, "Benjamin Netanyahu further damages U.S.-Israel relations": Actually, Obama "Doesn't Do Regret"

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Yesterday, in a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "Benjamin Netanyahu further damages U.S.-Israel relations," Dana Milbank observed:

"Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t do regret.

Earlier this year, the Israeli prime minister did more than any of his predecessors over nearly 70 years to turn his country into a partisan political issue in the United States. In his speech to Congress and in other venues, he fought hard against President Obama and the Iran nuclear deal — losing the battle but driving a deep wedge through America, and the American Jewish community."

And to help prove his point, Milbank added:

"The split on Israel, aggravated by Netanyahu, is worrying because it emboldens those on the left who really aren’t friends of Israel. More than 50 of them demonstrated outside the White House on Monday morning at the time Netanyahu was to arrive. Led by the antiwar ANSWER Coalition and including groups such as Code Pink and Veterans for Peace, they held signs proclaiming 'Netanyahu War Criminal,' 'Stop all aid to Israel' and 'Boycott Israel.'"

More than 50 demonstrators outside the White House? Protesters from Code Pink? Quite the groundswell!

But more to the point, how can Milbank address the discordant relationship between Netanyahu and Obama without relating to Obama's role in engineering the antagonism? In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece entitled "How Obama Abandoned Israel," former Israeli Ambassador to the US (now Member of Knesset) Michael Oren wrote:

"From the moment he entered office, Mr. Obama promoted an agenda of championing the Palestinian cause and achieving a nuclear accord with Iran. Such policies would have put him at odds with any Israeli leader. But Mr. Obama posed an even more fundamental challenge by abandoning the two core principles of Israel’s alliance with America.

The first principle was 'no daylight.' . . . . immediately after his first inauguration, Mr. Obama put daylight between Israel and America.

. . . .

The other core principle was 'no surprises.' President Obama discarded it in his first meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, in May 2009, by abruptly demanding a settlement freeze and Israeli acceptance of the two-state solution. The following month the president traveled to the Middle East, pointedly skipping Israel and addressing the Muslim world from Cairo.

. . . .

The abandonment of the 'no daylight' and 'no surprises' principles climaxed over the Iranian nuclear program."

Netanyahu's opposition to the Iran nuclear "deal"? Needless to say, Milbank doesn't mention how Iran has sent growing numbers of troops to Syria in support of Assad after the unsigned "deal" was announced. Worse still, Milbank also fails to point out that Iran is no longer dismantling centrifuges at two uranium enrichment plants as demanded by the so-called "deal."

In fact, it is Obama, a dyed in the wool narcissist, who is incapable of regret.