What Obama didn't count on was that, for all the changes taking place among younger "progressive" Jews, Jerusalem remains a third rail in American politics.
During the second half of Barack Obama's first term in office, the president's refusal to face reality in the Middle East is likely to shape American policy.
"If you refuse these demands," Hillary told Netanyahu, according to our sources, "the United States government will conclude that [America and Israel] no longer share the same interests."
Understandably, some American Jews were annoyed that Obama had failed to include Israel in his July 2009 Mideast trip. But what rankled them even more was that the president seemed to adopt the Arab narrative to explain the existence of Israel.
Beyond domestic policies and beyond complex U.S.-Israel issues, detractors of this president keep asking: does he really "get" American Jews and their concerns?