Obama prepares to punish Israeli voters for rejecting him UPDATED

Netanyahu's Extraordinary Win Gives Him Bold Mandate  . . . "In his speech early this month to a Joint Session of Congress, Netanyahu played Winston Churchill, warning America and the world of the Nazi-like gathering storm in a soon-to-be-nuclear-armed Iran.

In this case, however, it was an American president, not a British prime minister, playing Neville Chamberlain's role of appeaser." . . 

Hot Air   "Following the upset in Israel that saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party and its allies win a decisive victory in Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, a few postmortems have observed that Israeli voters did not merely fail to reject Bibi but they also delivered a resounding rebuketo the Obama administration. As any nigh-omnipotent being would, President Barack Obama and his administration have begun to suggest that retribution is imminent for the state of Israel, its profane government, and its idolatrous voters." . . .

UPDATE: U.S. Threatens Sanctions Against Israel, Makes Excuses for Iran  "The U.S. government might impose sanctions on Israel or allow its greatest ally in the Middle East to be tried in the International Criminal Court, according to Politico. Michael Crowley reports:

Obama officials must now decide whether more international pressure on Israel can help bring a conservative Netanyahu-led government back to the negotiating table with the Palestinians — or whether such pressure would simply provoke a defiant reaction, as some fear.

Obama has other diplomatic options. He could expend less political capital to oppose growing momentum within the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel for its settlement activity.

More provocative to Israel would be any softening of Obama’s opposition to Palestinian efforts to join the International Criminal Court, which the Palestinian Authority will formally join on April 1. Under a law passed by Congress, any Palestinian bid to bring war crimes charges against Israel at the court will automatically sever America’s $400 million in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority, although some experts suggested Obama could find indirect ways to continue some funding — even if only to prevent a dangerous collapse of the Palestinian governing body.

" Meanwhile, in other news, the U.S. government is making excuses for Iran's testing of its nuclear program. Bloomberg reports:" . . .

When nuclear monitors said Iran had started testing a single advanced centrifuge last year, some U.S. politicians and analysts jumped on the report as proof the Islamic Republic can’t be trusted.