Is Obama intentionally alienating Israel or is he just arrogant and naive?

This is not the first time President Obama has angered or offended a head of state, but it might be the worst and most arrogant.

Last year President Obama’s arrogance resulted in French President Sarkozy reportedly calling President Obama Naive and grossly egotistical in regards to Obama’s response and handling of Iran’s nuclear program.  A response that to date appears to be a complete failure.

Now, President Obama showed a complete lack of respect to a visiting head of state, when after negotiations did not go to his liking, he simply walked out on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu:

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”.

…

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, cast doubt on minor details in Israeli accounts of the meeting but did not deny claims that it amounted to a dressing down for the Prime Minister, whose refusal to freeze settlements is seen in Washington as the main barrier to resuming peace talks.

Prior to humiliating the Prime Minister by walking out rather than having dinner, Obama refused to allow press or photographers access to his meeting with Netanyahu.  Obama failed to hold a joint press conference, or even issue a press statement, both of which are expected when hosting a visiting head of state.

Apparently, President Obama decided to play hard ball and insult Netanyahu as retribution for what he saw as Israel showing disrespect to Vice President Joe Biden.  ALLAHPUNDIT of Hot Air explains:

In a nutshell, the right-wing part of Netanyahu’s government announced the building of new settlements in east Jerusalem on the day Biden came to visit, which allegedly sent The One into a snit over what he considered to be an insult. Never mind that Netanyahu himself apparently didn’t know about the timing of the announcement and that building in east Jerusalem, which would almost certainly remain Israeli in any peace deal, was routine. Obama wants to make a show of standing up to the Zionist entity for our Islamic “partners in peace” in the naive belief that that’ll help bring about the ever elusive solution to the crisis.

Some have said that he treated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu like a third world dictator, but the fact is we have seen President Obama bend over backwards time after time to the dictators he thinks he can convince to become US allies simply by showing them the ‘softer’ side of the United States, while time and again he shows a lack of respect to our long-time allies.