In June 2008, candidate Barack Obama spoke before thousands of delegates to the pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to assuage concerns that he harbored animosity toward the Jewish state. In a paragraph of his speech that began with the phrase "Let me be clear," Obama declared that under his vision for peace, "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." The next day, after the statement triggered fierce criticism from Palestinian leaders, Obama backtracked. The reversal was an early signal of what has become a pattern during his presidency — professing profound support for Israel when it suits him, only to reverse himself when it comes to actual policy.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the United States this week, President Obama won't meet with him — even as the administration plays a dangerous diplomatic game with Iran. Though administration officials would like to write off the current tension between the United States and Israel as being specific to Netanyahu and his decision to speak to Congress, the reality suggests that it's a product of a broader concerted effort by Obama to rupture the relationship between the two allies.

As the Washington Post previously reported, in July 2009, early in his presidency, Obama criticized his predecessor for pursuing policies that were too reflexively pro-Israel. "When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states," he lamented. Throughout his presidency, he has sought to create this "daylight" between the two traditional allies, with well-orchestrated provocations. In his first term, he demanded a "settlement freeze" from Israel that treated Jewish housing construction as the biggest threat to Middle East peace. He went on to propose that Israel return to indefensible pre- 1967 borders and he fought off efforts to impose sanctions on Iran, only agreeing to them reluctantly after they passed overwhelmingly by Congress.

In his second term, it has become routine for administration officials to be found trashing Israel and attempting to blame Israel for the failure of peace talks in the face of intransigence and terrorism from Palestinians. Secretary of State John Kerry even suggested the nation could become an apartheid state.

Obama appointed Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, who was on record complaining about how " the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people" in Washington. Though Hagel has since been pushed aside, Obama seemingly shares the same views of nefarious influence peddling. In a January closed-door meeting with Democratic Senators, according to the New York Times, Obama had a tense exchange over criticism of his Iran policy from fellow Democrats such as Sen. Robert Menendez. According to the account, Obama remarked that criticism was a result of "pressures that senators face from donors" — a thinly-veiled reference to wealthy Jews.

Keep in mind that last fall, a senior administration official was anonymously quoted by Jeffrey Goldberg as calling Netanyuahu a " chickenshit" for not having taken preemptive military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. Netanyahu's mistake, it seems, was taking Obama at his word.

In the lead up to his 2012 speech to the AIPAC conference, as he sought re-election, Obama told Goldberg that he was firm in maintaining the military option against any Iranian nuclear program. "As president of the United States, I don't bluff," Obama boasted. He said, "We've got Israel's back." And he went on to tell AIPAC that, "I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say."

But in negotiations that have stretched on for well over a year, the Obama administration has been confronted by an Iranian leadership that keeps saying "no" to a deal. Yet Obama has rewarded Iran for its intransigence, in the form of sanctions relief and concessions on nuclear enrichment, plutonium development, and missile technology. If recent leaks about the emerging deal are an accurate representation of where talks currently stand (allowing Iran to maintain thousands of centrifuges in the short term, then remove restrictions in a decade) then the question is not if Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon, but when. And according to the Wall Street Journal, despite Obama's prior assurances, the administration has been taking the military option off of the table. Bizarrely, according to the report, "Officials now are arguing that any military action would only guarantee Iran's Islamist leaders would move to develop nuclear weapons."

Israel is home to over 40 percent of the world's Jewish population, and a nuclear Iran, which now looks inevitable if Obama isn't thwarted by Congress, will put the regime in position to carry out a second Holocaust.

Even if we were to set aside any notion of the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship or dismiss the significance of the vow "Never Again," and merely look at the issue in the most narrow and dispassionate terms of what's in America's national security interests, the administration's moves are dangerous. In trying to prove that he won't be cowed by any sort of lobbying effort by the pro-Israel community, Obama has been stubbornly refusing to see that his policy has elevated a radical Islamist regime as a regional power — a regime that has for decades called for "Death to America" and has been a leading state sponsor of terrorism. Allowing Iran to go nuclear not only alienates Israel, but also Arab nations that would also be threatened.

As thousands gather for this year's AIPAC conference on Monday, Obama won't be addressing them, as he last did in 2008 and 2012, when he was seeking election. Instead, he will send National Security Advisor Susan Rice (who recently called Netanyahu's visit to Congress "destructive") and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power. No doubt, the two will speak in platitudes about the importance of the U.S. relationship with Israel. But it's getting more difficult to hide the fact that Obama's foreign policy is blinded by his hostility toward Israel to the point where he's putting America's own national security at risk.