WASHINGTON—Saying the Likud Party leader had set Israeli citizens’ expectations extremely high in the run up to his reelection Tuesday, top-level sources expressed their worry Wednesday about whether the United States would actually be able to live up to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign promises. “Given the ambitious list of security and spending initiatives that Netanyahu guaranteed Israeli voters on the campaign trail, I think it could be very difficult for the U.S. to come through on all of them; the pressure’s really going to be on America not to disappoint his constituents,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Eric Patel, explaining that, realistically, the U.S. would likely have trouble following through on Netanyahu’s repeated vows on the campaign trail to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon at any cost and continuing to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state. “He made a bold personal pledge to every voter that Israel’s military capabilities would be considerably bolstered under his watch, which is going to be real tough for us to accomplish. I’m afraid we might end up having to eat his words.” With Netanyahu’s extensive agenda laid out before the U.S., Patel added that America would likely just have to increase its annual $3.1 billion in aid to Israel a little further and hope for the best.

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