A few months ago, when Secretary of State John Kerry amped up his efforts to get an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, senior members of the Israeli resorted to attacking him personally, while throwing any insulting wrench they can find into the process itself.
"Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) is alive and well thanks to us," [Israeli Security Minister] Ya'alon said. "The moment we leave Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) he is finished. In reality, there have been no negotiations between us and the Palestinians for all these months – but rather between us and the Americans. The only thing that can 'save us' is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace." The response was swift, and Ya'alon retracted: In a statement issued just before midnight, Ya'alon apologized for "insulting" the secretary of state in calling him "obsessive and messianic.""The defense minister did not intend to insult the secretary and he apologizes if the secretary was hurt by the remarks attributed to the defense minister," read a statement issued by Ya'alon's bureau.
The apology was issued after two-hour meeting between Ya'alon and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the premier's residence in Jerusalem. The statement, which was composed together with Netanyahu, followed a lukewarm response from Ya'alon earlier in the day which was rejected by the Obama Administration.
Ok, everyone thought. People still do remember sometimes - even given Israel's ability to get 100 U.S. Senators (give or take a few) to sign any idiotic one-sided statement it wants - which of the two nations is the superpower sponsor, and which one is its rather tiny and dependent client state.Cue in terrible 2014.