"AVOID a confrontation with the new American administration"

In the ECONOMIST, here

"....The defence minister’s remarks came in leaked driblets from the secret consultation. Publicly Mr Barak, the leader of the Labour Party, has been careful not to criticise or dissent from Mr Netanyahu, who heads the more rightist Likud. By the same token, Mr Netanyahu has been unwontedly reticent on his own views and plans, for fear of prematurely ventilating differences with the Obama administration....

Despite ups and downs, relations between the superpower and its unruly client have grown steadily closer over the decades. Efforts by all the successive American administrations to stop Israeli settlement building in the Palestinian areas have been resisted or ignored....

Speculation this time has focused on the fact that Mr Netanyahu made tentative plans to visit Washington, DC, early in May, but the White House let it be known that the president would not be available.....

....there is also a growing awareness here that the policy’s success, as well as the strength and effectiveness of Sunni Arab opposition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, may hinge on America’s ability to show substantive progress on Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peacemaking."