“The virulent anti-Americanism of the Israeli government, underscored by its recent very loud slap in the face of the Vice President of the United States, is nothing new. Yet many are shocked — shocked! — at Israel’s behavior. The official spin out of Tel Aviv is that the announcement of more settlement-building — at the very moment when Biden was pleading with his good friend ‘Bibi’ to cease and desist — is all due to a single minister in a very fractious cabinet: yet Netanyahu and indeed the entire Israeli government supports this move to throw more Palestinians off their land and build exclusively Jewish settlements. What gives this public rebuff a particularly sharp sting is that it subverts the very idea of the ’special relationship,’ which Biden cravenly insisted on even as he was being humiliated …” (03/12/10)