Much controversy has arisen recently about the Obama administration leaking details of Israel's planned raid on Iranian nuclear sites by using Azerbaijan as a staging area. The reason for the leaks is simple: if Israel attacks Iran, Obama will lose the presidential election this fall, and BHO will do anything to prevent that from happening.

If Israel were to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear weapons capability, Iran would retaliate by attempting to close the Strait of Hormuz as it has often threatened. The U.S. Fifth Fleet patrolling the area would likely be called upon to keep the Strait open, and expanded American military involvement in the region could not be ruled out. World oil and financial markets would be roiled. Israel would be hit with a barrage of rockets and international condemnations. And relations with strategic competitors such as China and Russia would hit the deep freeze. President Obama would have many 3AM telephone calls to deal with.

But the real pain for Obama would come from the political price he would pay as Americans saw gasoline prices skyrocket (again), dead and wounded U.S. soldiers and sailors coming home from the Middle East (again), plummeting financial markets (again), possible terror attacks on U.S. soil (again), and internet disruptions from Iranian cyberwar. No president could survive politically from such a series of calamities. Thus president Obama is desperate to delay any Israeli attack on Iran until after the November elections, even to the extent of foiling Israel's near-term military plans.

Others have observed that Obama is willing to sacrifice anything to win re-election. His trips and speeches have little to do with policy and everything to do with politics. His cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline was a blatant move to solidify his position with the radical environmentalists, even at the expense of 100,000 lost jobs. The administration's contraception ruling affecting Catholic hospitals and universities, and Obama's exploitation of the Sandra Fluke incident were meant to cement his radical feminist base, although many Catholics were alienated. Obama has ratcheted up his race- and class-based rhetoric, most recently with the Treyvon Martin incident, to ignite racial resentments in a cynical ploy to increase Democratic voter turnout at the expense of the cordial race relations 2008 candidate Obama had promised. His recent budget, rejected 414-0 in the House, was more a political statement of his hostility to the Congress than an actual policy document. Obama's latest effort to undercut the strategic interests of a valued ally are of the same cloth, as Israel joins far too many Americans under the bus.

Perversely, the world sees these two allies, the U.S. and Israel, struggling with each other right out in the open. What could possibly be next?  What 2013 Obama policies are so important that Israel means so little?