PJ Crowley, the former US Assistant Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, writes that for Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu's victory means that Netanyahu has become a “chronic pain” that “will not go away.”
Obama had hoped that “an alternative remedy might help him alleviate some of the Middle East pain he and his administration have felt in recent months,” writes Crowley in the BBC website.
“Alas, the test results are back – the pain is not going away and will actually become more acute and more difficult to manage during his remaining time in office.”
“A major source of the pain” is Obama's “problematic relationship” with Netanyahu, says Crowley,
Netanyahu's election “does not materially impact the prospects of an agreement” between the United States and Iran, the former diplomat estimated. Obama was already constructing an agreement that Congress “can criticize but not stop,” he explained – and Netanyahu “will ultimately have to live with whatever Mr Obama does.”
Crowley added that Netanyahu has now disavowed his earlier support for a Palestinian state, and that this also creates a deadlock that leaves Obama “with a chronic pain that, as with his recent predecessors, he will bequeath to the next occupant of the White House.”