Laura Rozen writes about the Israeli prime minister's frustration as it dawns on him that Obama may really be more serious about freezing settlements than other U.S. presidents, and, at the risk of burying the lede, quotes former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller speculating that Obama's strategy is to drive Netanyahu out:
Even one veteran Washington peacemaker who had grown skeptical that Washington can overcome obstacles to get substantive progress on Middle East peace admitted to being impressed by the Obama team's resolve. "What I'm beginning to see is that the Obama administration may be less concerned with actually getting to negotiations and an agreement and more interested in setting new rules and rearranging the furniture," said Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson Institute. "They may have concluded that they can't get to a real two state solution with this prime minister [Netanyahu]. Maybe they want a new one? And the best way to raise the odds of that is to demonstrate that he can't manage Israel's most important relationship: with the U.S."
--Michael Crowley