Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Israel and the United States have been engaged in their
most serious dispute in decades, a report said.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy determined that Israel and
the United States were seeing a drop in cooperation amid their dispute over
Iran. In a report, the institute said the feud could intensify as President
Barack Obama moves closer toward the Teheran regime.

“America and Israel are in uncharted waters,” the report, titled “Obama’s Fight With Israel: This Time It’s Serious,” said. “Not since Menachem Begin trashed Ronald Reagan’s 1982 peace plan has Israel so publicly criticized a major U.S. diplomatic initiative.”

Institute executive director Robert Satloff said the current dispute would leave scars in the Israeli-U.S. relationship. Satloff, regarded as close to both the governments in Jerusalem and Washington, cited the unprecedented U.S. criticism of Israel’s opposition to the removal of sanctions from Teheran as part of a resolution of its nuclear crisis.

“And not in recent memory has the spokesperson for the president of the
United States, knowing that Israel and many of its American friends have
criticized the administration’s Iran policy, accused detractors of leading a
‘march to war,’ thereby opening a Pandora’s box of hateful recrimination
that will be difficult to close,” the report said.

The report said Israel has concluded that Obama, despite numerous
pledges, withheld details of the proposed P5+1 agreement with Iran. Israel
was said to be concerned that Iran would be allowed to continue uranium
enrichment as well as the production of plutonium for what could be used for
nuclear weapons.

“These are weighty concerns and serious accusations,” the report said.
“They deserve a full accounting. It is shameful to suggest that anyone who
raises these questions prefers war to diplomacy. That is especially because
each of these charges appears to have merit.”

Satloff identified Secretary of State John Kerry as having the fueled
the crisis between Israel and the United States. They included Kerry’s
suggestion that Israel wanted another Palestinian uprising in the West Bank
and his warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop
intervening in U.S. efforts to reach a nuclear agreement with Teheran.

“If the Obama administration wanted to raise the blood pressure of even
the least paranoid Israelis, the combination of the rush to a deal in Geneva
and an attack on Israel’s peacemaking credentials was a sure way to do it,”
the report said.

The report said Israel has sent mixed messages on Iran’s nuclear
program. Over the last few weeks, the Israeli government was said to have
switched from alarm over the prospect of Iranian nuclear weapons to
assertions that “time is on our side.”

Satloff urged Obama to improve consultation with Israel to avoid any
surprises for the Netanyahu government. The author also called for a meeting
between Netanyahu and Obama.

“More than anything, repairing the torn fabric of U.S.-Israel
relations — including the fundamental question of whether the world should
allow Iran any independent enrichment capacity — will require a renewed
meeting of the minds between Obama and Netanyahu,” the report said.

  Benjamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, P5+1 agreement, Report: Obama’s Iran policy puts ‘America and Israel in uncharted waters’, Robert Satloff, Washington Institute for Near East Policy