And to think some people were concerned that Barack Obama might not be the best friend our strongest ally in the Middle East has ever had. According to the New York Times, the Obama Administration is seeking ways to punish Israel for not adhering to its demands that no new settlements be established.

As President Obama prepares to head to the Middle East this week, administration officials are debating how to toughen their stance against any expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The measures under discussion — all largely symbolic — include stepping back from America’s near-uniform support for Israel in the United Nations if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel does not agree to a settlement freeze, administration officials said.

Other measures include refraining from the instant Security Council veto of United Nations resolutions that Israel opposes and making use of Mr. Obama’s bully pulpit to criticize the settlements, officials said. Placing conditions on loan guarantees to Israel, as the first President Bush did nearly 20 years ago, is not under discussion, officials said.

Still, talk of even symbolic actions that would publicly show the United States’ ire with Israel, its longtime ally, would be a sharp departure from the previous administration, which limited its distaste with Israel’s settlement expansions to carefully worded diplomatic statements that called them “unhelpful.”

So Israel should be punished for not adhering to Washington’s demands on setttlements and being slightly unhelpful (in the eyes of the administration) in the “peace” process. Yet how has the Obama Administration reacted to Hamas’ lobbing of missiles into Israeli cities? By handing over $900 million to them in order to rebuild after Israel decided to fight back.

Is anyone really surprised that Barack Obama might not be a strong supporter for Israel at the United Nations? His appointees included Samantha Power and Susan Rice. He attended a church where the Hamas manifesto was printed in the bulletin long before he left. Obama unapologetically attended a farewell dinner for Rashid Khalid, an anti-Israeli supporter of Palestinian tactics against the country. He made promises to AIPAC that he’d later renege on. Not so shocking that he might not be Israel’s biggest supporter.

Via Hot Air.