By David Harris
If one reads the latest international headlines, one could be forgiven for thinking that the relationship between the United States and Israel is at a crisis point. The long-time allies appear to be farther apart than ever.
US President Barack Obama chose to visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt last week, skipping over Israel.
His first venture eastwards since becoming president included a trip to Turkey in April. In both Istanbul and Cairo, he addressed the Muslim world, trying to bridge the gap between the US and the Islamic world.
Israelis and Jews all over the world have been expressing their concerns that Obama is taking American policy away from the traditional warm relationship with Israel and heading with open arms towards Israel's sworn enemies, including Iran.
That is the media spin, at least.
Yet in private conversations, officials in Washington and Jerusalem are quick to say the truth could be nothing further from this.
Sure, they say, there are policy differences, particularly on the thorny subject of Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, but on the whole, the two countries see eye-to-eye on most issues, and in long term the pair are very much in sync.
"There's been a lot of press ado about public disagreement on a very specific and pinpointed issue, certainly not a minor issue, but one on which the US is only reiterating its traditional policies and this is something we are working on with our American counterparts," Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor told Xinhua.
The settlement issue is currently dogging progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, with leading Palestinians joining Obama in calling on Israel to stop all settlement activity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to address the settlement issue when he delivers a keynote speech on Sunday. Thus far, Netanyahu's public comments and those of his closest political allies suggest an unbending stance.
There is no talk of a two-state solution, which means Netanyahu has not yet said he believes the Palestinians are entitled to a state.
On the settlement issue, the Israeli prime minister has made it clear he will try to dismantle illegal outposts but favors the expansion of existing settlements to take into account the "natural growth".
"We will not agree to freeze life in the settlements," Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers earlier this month.
Israel is looking for a commitment from the US to allow major settlement blocs to remain in any final-status agreement with the Palestinians. That would automatically allow for "natural growth". So far that commitment has not been forthcoming.
Some argue that even this difference of opinion is the result of Americans wanting the best for Israel.
"Maybe it is necessary at this moment in history, and unavoidable, for American Jews and Israelis to endure in the short term some discomfort with this rhetoric and sympathetic approach to the Arab and Muslim peoples in order to achieve the longer term and enduring the objective of peace that most Israelis crave and need," Lanny J. Davis, a special counsel to former US President Bill Clinton, wrote in The Washington Times on Monday.
