Putin Goes To Israel While Obama Pouts

You don't have to be best friends with Israel to realize their strategic importance, as well as their contribution to anti-Islamic intelligence and weapons technology.  Plus, their economy is going gangbusters.  Vladimir Putin is no ally of the Jewish state, but even he is smart enough to recognize the need to stop by and say hello every now and then:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to make his first official visit to Israel since 2005, although the exact date for the visit has not yet been determined, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

...Foreign Minster Avigdor Liberman met with Putin in Moscow in December.

According to a communiqué put out by Liberman’s office following the December meeting, he told Putin that Israel and Russia had different positions on a range of issues, from the diplomatic process with the Palestinians to current developments in the region, but that he hoped Israel’s position on matters such as Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas would get a hearing in Moscow.

Regarding the Palestinian issue, Liberman said Russia’s support for unilateral Palestinian moves does not bring an agreement closer or improve relations between Israel and the Palestinians....

With that, Liberman said ties between the countries are “very positive” 20 years after the renewal of diplomatic relations between them, and that this was manifest in an ongoing political dialogue, in economic and cultural ties and in keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust.

Reset, baby!

Seems like there's a pretty wide gulf, actually, between Israel and Russia, yet Putin will be visiting with Bibi nevertheless.  So where is Barack Obama, leader of the nation that once claimed to be Israel's greatest ally?

He's sulking like a bitch:

But though President Obama was willing to go to Israel while running for president in 2008, his deep dislike for Netanyahu has led him to avoid it since then. Though he spent his first three years in office picking fights with Israel, his deliberate avoidance of Israel in June 2009 when he spoke to the Arab world from Cairo (and made an insulting comparison between the Holocaust and the plight of the Palestinians) was resented even more than some of his comments about Jerusalem and the 1967 lines....

Those Democrats who have attempted to claim that Obama is Israel’s best friend ever in the White House — a claim that has been met with hilarity by many American Jews and incredulity by Israelis — the fact that Putin is going to Israel this summer while Obama still avoids it makes this argument even less credible.


Prediction: Obama attempts a visit to Israel sometime in the fall to shore up his Jewish base

Possible Outcomes:
A) Obama's can't go, as Israel is at war with Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and the two-legged animals that live in -Gaza after bombing the Iranian nuclear sites.
B) Netanyahu jerks him around, not wanting to be used as a re-election prop for an anti-Semite
C) Obama goes and commits some unforgivable gaffe
D) Obama goes, but the trip is widely seen as it is - a desperate re-election ploy by an insincere man - and it winds up hurting him more than helping him.

I'd bet on D, unless it is pre-empted by A.  Either way, you can expect that once  Bibi and Vladimir get together, there will be much derision directed at a certain think-skinned, intellectually weak, incredibly naive leader of a once-great power....