That’s the essence of  what Obama said about his pathetically low standing among Israelis:

During the interview Wednesday, when confronted with the anxiety that some Israelis feel toward him, Obama said that “some of it may just be the fact that my middle name is Hussein, and that creates suspicion.”

“Ironically, I’ve got a Chief of Staff named Rahm Israel Emmanuel. My top political advisor is somebody who is a descendent of Holocaust survivors. My closeness to the Jewish American community was probably what propelled me to the U.S. Senate,” Obama said.

“I think that sometimes, particularly in the Middle East, there’s the feeling of the friend of my enemy must be my enemy, and the truth of the matter is that my outreach to the Muslim community is designed precisely to reduce the antagonism and the dangers posed by a hostile Muslim world to Israel and to the West,” Obama went on to say.

This actually isn’t new. His “Hussein” line was used repeatedly during the campaign to pooh-pooh Jews’ unease about Obama and the 20 years he spent in a rabid anti-Semite’s church. But now that he is preisdent it is cringe-inducing that he would accuse the Israeli people of bigotry and blame them for his lack of connection to the Jewish state. It never dawns on the White House — which told American Jews to go self-reflect about their views on Israel – that it is their own policies and rhetoric that have convinced Israelis not to trust the U.S. president. In any event, you can see why he isn’t planning to go to Israel anytime soon. He doesn’t exactly bowl them over with charm, does he?

And by the way, has that Muslim outreach reduced antagonism to the Jewish state? It seems as though the UN Human Rights Council, the EU, the UN, and the Muslim world are all more antagonistic than ever toward Israel. That is what comes from the U.S. president’s public bashing of Israel. It is what inevitably follows when an administration goes to great lengths to put daylight between the U.S. and the Jewish state. You see, no nation one can be less hostile to the Jewish state than the U.S.

One other interesting note: Obama says of the prospect that Israel might surprise the U.S. with a unilateral attack on Iran: “I think the relationship between Israel and the U.S. is sufficiently strong that neither of us try to surprise each other, but we try to coordinate on issues of mutual concern.” Coming from the president who escalated a routine housing permit into an international incident, this is rich. And given his lack of sympathy for the Jewish state, one wonders just how much advanced notice would be advisable for Israel to give to the U.S. if it were compelled to attack Iran because the U.S. refuses to do so.