Obama moved against Israeli settlements without regard for Israeli public opinion and while at the same time making grand gestures to the Arab world. The result, as has been pointed out here several times, is that Obama has lost his best leverage in dealing with Bibi: Israeli public opinion. A vast majority of Israelis are convinced that Obama is no friend of Israel, which allows Netanyahu to disregard Obama’s demands for a settlement freeze and even risk a standoff between his administration and Obama’s with little fear that the public will blame him for the crisis. Eric Fingerhut points to two pieces in the Israeli press that make a similar point. One is by Shmuel Rosner, who writes in the Jerusalem Post that there are only two explanations for Obama’s mishandling of the issue: