... although this all looks good, we should not kid ourselves. AIPAC is coming to Washington for their grovelfest (see link in original column below) and that means angry donors demanding that the US apologize to the Israeli government for hurting its feelings. Count on your favorite House liberals (Chris Van Hollen, Anthony Weiner, Jerry Nadler, Steny Hoyer, Alan Grayson, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, etc) to lead the charge for Bibi with Senators Boxer, Schumer, etc joining in).

In the end, we'll almost surely cave. One thing to remember, though. Israel's behavior this week really does indicate that its posturing about Iranian nukes is a kind of head fake. If Israel was really worried, it would not have insulted the US government publicly. At least those of us who really do care about Israel (the real Israel, not the Israel of the settlers) can rest assured that the Iranian threat is not "existential" at all, as Israelis are always claiming. If it was, they would not have forced a confrontation with America over these fanatical settler zealots rather than seriously coordinate with the US on Iran (which is what Biden was in Israel for).

We are shocked and stunned at the Administration's tone and public dressing down of Israel on the issue of future building in Jerusalem. We cannot remember an instance when such harsh language was directed at a friend and ally of the United States.

Yet it appears that again we are dealing with disorderly conduct by the Prime Minister’s Office that allows such grave matter to materialize. Time and again, we see incidents happening here that attest to foolishness, indifference, and insensitivity. Otherwise, how could it be that every time an American envoy arrives here, ranging from George Mitchell to Hillary Clinton to Joe Biden, we embarrass them with acts that look like sticking a finger in one’s eye?

This week's contretemps with Biden and now Clinton, however, has moved the settlement issue - and particularly the fate of East Jerusalem, whose status as the capital of any future Palestinian state is widely considered a pre-condition for any viable two-state solution - front and centre once again.

"It is now abundantly clear that with or without a formal declaration from Netanyahu, getting events in Jerusalem under control - which includes a de facto full-stop settlement freeze in Jerusalem - is no mere discretionary gesture but a political imperative," according to Lara Friedman and Daniel Seidemann of Americans for Peace Now (APN). "Failing that, this political process will be stillborn."

But it is not only the peace talks, which Obama's special envoy, George Mitchell, had laboured long and hard to convene, that this week's incident has put into question. In the words of one veteran U.S. Mideast hand, Aaron David Miller, it also raised new questions over "the degree to which Israel is willing to take into account U.S. interests."

Indeed, while Biden's mission was originally aimed at publicly reassuring Israelis of Washington's "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment" to their security, as he put it immediately after his arrival, the private message, especially in light of the Interior Ministry's announcement, was that Israel should reciprocate, according to an account published in Yedioth Ahronoth.

"'This is starting to get dangerous for us,' Biden castigated his interlocutors," the newspaper reported. "'What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.'"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led Israel into a serious crisis in relations with the United States and to a collapse in peace talks with the Palestinians just when they were to be resumed.

A year after he took office, it is apparent that his government's policies, which made it top priority to populate East Jerusalem with Jews, is leading to Israel's increasing international isolation and threatening its key security interests in the name of an extreme right-wing ideology.