McClatchy's/ here"...... Netanyahu also appears to be betting that he'll get little pushback from a U.S. president who's avoided public confrontation with Israel and is concentrating on building Democratic support on domestic issues such as health care.
What an Israeli newspaper called "The Slap Heard 'Round the World" brought sharp condemnation from Biden, who met Palestinians leaders in the West Bank on Wednesday.
However, the White House appeared eager to move on to just-announced indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israeli columnists predicted that Netanyahu would suffer little more than a diplomatic tap on the wrist.
Aaron David Miller, who worked on Middle East issues for six secretaries of state and is now a fellow at Washington's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said Obama would do best to move on after Tuesday's contretemps.
"The problem for Obama is that he has zero options on this one," Miller said. "He can't escalate" because East Jerusalem is non-negotiable to many Israelis. "He's going to lose." If Obama wants to pick a fight with Netanyahu, he should do it on a different issue, he said.
The greater problem is U.S. credibility, Miller said.
"Smaller powers are saying 'no' to bigger powers without cost and without consequences . . . . It is hurting his credibility.".......
The settler movement is "deeply entrenched" in Israel's decision-making, said Levy, now at the Washington-based New America Foundation. "It is far more foreboding for the Israeli leader to challenge the settler movement and their political supporters . . . than it is foreboding to take on the U.S. administration. He has not yet seen there are consequences."....
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