Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to speak before a joint session of Congress revealed again the dark side of Barack Obama’s personality.

“Netanyahu spat in our face.  There will be a price.”  With these words, an unnamed Obama administration official declared war on Israel’s prime minister.

Bullying and threatening people is the modus operandi of Barack Obama – despite his hypocritical calls for more civility in politics.  This was visible very early in his 2008 campaign, when he warned people not to criticize or scrutinize him.

Ben Smith of Politico quoted Obama:

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said in Philadelphia last night. “Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

Once in office, he even bullied one Democrat wavering on whether to vote for Obama by warning him, “Don’t think we aren’t keeping score, brother” (see “Obama’s Mean Streak”).

He also counseled that elections were about “punishing enemies” and later, of the cuff, said that people should vote for revenge (an especially disgraceful remark, because he said it to schoolchildren).

His handpicked officials share that desire to intimidate and scare people.  Tony Blinken, then Joe Biden’s national security adviser, now Obama’s number-two at the National Security Council, for example, warned  Jewish leaders back in 2012 they had better support – or else – Barack Obama.

From Haaretz:

And he was unusually blunt about the partisan political attacks on the President’s Middle East record: he said what could really harm U.S.-Israeli relations and Israel’s national security is “subjecting either to the vagaries of partisan politics or election year talking points."

“There are individuals on all sides who unfortunately use the debate over policy toward Israel for political purposes, and unfortunately, because of the season that we’re in now, that only gets worse and worse and worse. For generations, Israel has been a bastion of bipartisan consensus – the stakes are too high for us and for Israel to let that change now,” he said. “We can question each other’s judgment – but not each other’s motives.”

He also noted, without explicitly directing his comments at anyone in particular, that “there is a decent chance that the Obama-Biden Administration will be around next November, so folks who are looking how to address these issues should probably factor that in as a reasonable possibility.”

Pastor Jeremiah would be happy at the treatment meted out to Israel and to Jews.

Meanwhile, people who attack America and our allies are not subjected to the same ire.  They save the anger, threats, and punishments for allies of America, people who don’t support Obama (see IRS, Department of Justice), and, apparently, Jews.

No wonder anti-Semites such as Al Sharpton, Andrew Sullivan, and Turkish leader Recep ErdoДџan have a friend in the White House.