Gaza Violence Tests Once-Unshakable Allies U.S. And Israel
Relations between Israel and the United States are going through a turbulent time. The two sides — normally seen as unshakable allies — have increasingly taken to trading barbs and accusations about the other's policies and decisions, breaking diplomatic protocol.
The occasional frictions of the past few years have been exacerbated by the war in the Gaza Strip.
There's no question the two nations have had their ups and downs over the years, but nothing quite like the current public spat, says Eytan Gilboa, who specializes in U.S.-Israeli relations at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
"This is new, the continuing personal deterioration between the two leaders," he says. "The insults, the misunderstandings, the misperceptions have been accumulating to a point where an explosion of the kind that we have seen in recent days has become almost inevitable."
Many Israelis have never been fully comfortable with President Obama. The recent churn between the two countries could be dated to the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, when supporters of Obama suspected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of backing Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/08/20/341903726/gaza-violence-tests-once-unshakable-allies-u-s-and-israel
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