Just today, we’re hearing that the U.S. Post Office didn’t get the memo after the flight ban was lifted, and has been advising customers at some locations – since 23 July – that it can’t deliver their items to Israel. Adam Kredo points out that there was never an official directive to suspend postal deliveries to Israel, even during the flight ban. But that’s what a passive-aggressive approach is all about: finding flimsy excuses for inaction rather than doing the honest work to justify action.
Obama’s interdiction of the resupply shipment to Israel is a classic of its kind: executive, passive-aggressive, and framed for political effect. Soon enough, Democrats in Congress will probably get Obama to quietly back off on this little “hissy fit.” But the goal of reassuring Obama’s radical base will have been served (how effectively is a separate question; I refer here to the attempt). And if poisoning U.S. relations with Israel is a goal – and it’s hard to argue at this point that it isn’t – a blow will have been struck in that regard as well.