These people really do live in a different universe.

.@chuckwoolery @IsraelMatzav what you believe and what the reality is are universes apart.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) January 23, 2015

These people really think that Obama hates Israel or thinks more highly of Iran or Cuba than they do of Israel.

They have to ignore years of support, including direct assistance and military support during the various battles of late (including last year’s Gaza war), that includes funding development and deployment of Iron Dome systems faster than the IDF had envisioned originally.

It also ignores that the US has taken hands off on diplomatic front for a peace deal. Obama isn’t pushing for a peace deal in the overt and usual manner as seen in 2d term lame ducks for decades. There is almost certainly back-door talks ongoing, but that’s always the case. Obama isn’t demanding Israel stop settlements or other actions, and isn’t siding with the PA on the ICC or statehood. So, to claim that the President is now against Israel is a truly misleading notion.

What is apparently true is that there is no love between Netenyahu and Obama, but that isn’t the be-all and end-all of the Israel-US relationship. GOPers and right wingers are busy trying to divine intent from that alone, and the President’s refusal to meet with Netenyahu after the GOP invited him to speak in front of Congress. The interests of Netenyahu and the President don’t fully align here either - Netenyahu has an election to win, and a speech before Congress may help his chances. That’s Israeli domestic politics at work, and Obama doesn’t have to help Netenyahu either way.

Mossad’s split with Netenyahu - whether it’s as bad as some of the reports were claiming, or is simply a matter of degree shows that Israeli opinion on Netenyahu isn’t as monolithic as the right wingers and GOPers would want people to think either. Shades of grey (which is always the case when you’re talking ME politics).

And so it goes.

Same deal with the death of the Saudi King Abdullah and installation of his successor, Salman. Salman has been essentially ruling Saudi Arabia for the past year, and has been defense minister since 2011. The US knows him - he’s a known quantity, and the regime there has been charting this course for years. It’s not like the situation in Yemen, where no one knows what will happen now that the regime has fallen to Iranian backed rebel forces.

What is likely is that the Saudis will take the events in Yemen seriously and likely mount their own insurgency to install a Saudi-friendly regime and oust the Houthi group.