Obama Stuns Israel With Delay on Syria Strike

Israel’s initial, Pavlovian response to President Barack Obama’s surprising decision to attack Syria only after receiving congressional approval was disappointment, scorn and derision. This was not the official response, of course, but was whispered in the corridors of power.

“Ultimately, there’s nothing to be done,” I was told on Aug. 31 by a senior assistant to a high-level, right-wing minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. “Barack Obama is a flower child. He grew up as a flower child, he was elected as a flower child and he acts like a flower child. The problem is,” added the fellow, “that he can allow himself to behave like a flower child, but meanwhile we are stuck here in the midst of the jungle.”