Bibi and Obama

The relationship has been over for a while, as I wrote in January, and Helene Cooper includes this detail in the run-up to what is likely to be a tense meeting today:

Mr. Netanyahu has complained that Mr. Obama has pushed Israel too far — a point driven home during a furious phone call with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday morning, just hours before Mr. Obama’s speech, during which the prime minister reacted angrily to the president’s plan to endorse Israel’s pre-1967 borders for a future Palestinian state.

Obama’s relationship with Israel really does appear to be special, in the sense that it is especially difficult. He mentioned Israel yesterday far more than any other country — 28 times — and it’s hard to think of any world leader whom he ever meets, much less meets with regularity, whom the White House views with the kind of personal rancor that will meet Netanyahu today.

Today’s meeting should be interesting.