John Guardiano informs us that he is “taken aback” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “disrespect for President Obama.”

Disrespect for Obama?

If anyone is guilty of disrespect it is Obama towards Netanyahu. It was just over a year ago when Obama had Netanyahu over at the White House to dress him down over the settlements and to add insult to injury he told the Israeli Prime Minister to show himself out. And now this broadside?

As I have noted here, in a matter of seconds, President Obama went from stating the United States could not impose peace to demanding that Israel retreat to the armistice lines of the 1948-1949 Israeli War of Independence. Under the circumstances, Prime Minister Netanyahu would have certainly been taken aback. He is fully within his right to demand an explanation from Obama on behalf of the people of Israel.

If anything, Netanyahu has been admirably restrained in his response to Obama. If Guardiano thinks Netanyahu was disrespectful towards Obama then he might wish to consider Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments when he rejected Obama’s overtures to Iran in March 2009.

And since when is President Obama above criticism? Does Guardiano expect Netanyahu to remain silent when Obama makes untenable demands of Israel? The bottom line is that Netanyahu did not disrespect Obama. He was merely defending the country he was duly elected to lead. Someone who claims to be a friend of Israel ought to understand this implicitly.