Originally published in Tikkun Daily |

Israeli officials are apoplectic after the Obama administration confirmed that the IDF struck a Syrian military base this week.

Israel, which had refused to comment on the strike, is fuming behind the scenes and accusing the U.S. – which gives Israel $3 billion in funding annually – of not behaving like a proper ally:



Israel’s Channel 10 TV on Friday night quoted Israeli officials branding the American leak as “scandalous.” For Israel’s ally to be acting in this way was “unthinkable,” the officials were quoted as saying.

It was Netanyahu, after all, who had the chutzpah to criticize and lecture President Obama during a speech he delivered to Congress in 2011.

And it is Israel which, in defiance of repeated U.S. entreaties, continues to expand its settlement enterprise in the Occupied Territories, despite U.S. efforts to reignite peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

In fact, just this week, Israel announced further settlement expansions just as the U.S. announced Secretary of State John Kerry would arrive for further peace talks.

It's behavior Israel has engaged in repeatedly. Netanyahu officials recently embarrassed Vice President Joe Biden by officially announcing a large settlement expansion just as Biden stepped foot in Israel for talks on the peace process.

So much for behaving like an ally.

Scandalous, indeed.

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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, just out from Oneworld Publications.

Follow @David_EHG

