The Senate tries to caution Obama on hostility toward israel.

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Senators stress value of US-Israel ties
By LAHAV HARKOV
Bipartisan letter to Obama administration signed by 3/4 of Senate.
Three-quarters of the United States Senate have signed over the past three days a bipartisan letter to the Obama Administration stressing the importance of US-Israel relations, published on Tuesday.
Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) were the leading signatories. The letter, on which they were joined by 76 of their colleagues, is similar to the US House of Representatives letter sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the weekend. The House letter was signed by 333 members, more than three-quarters of that body.
The letter tells Clinton that “from the moment of Israel’s creation, successive US administrations have appreciated the special relationship between [the] two nations. Israel continues to be the one true democracy in the Middle East that brings stability to a region where it is in short supply.”...
It Is the Palestinians, Not Israel, Who Refuse to Negotiate - Ronald S. Lauder
Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, wrote to President Obama on Thursday: "Why does the thrust of this administration's Middle East rhetoric seem to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks? After all, it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who refuse to negotiate.
Israel has made unprecedented concessions. It has enacted the most far-reaching West Bank settlement moratorium in Israeli history. Israel has publicly declared support for a two-state solution. Conversely, many Palestinians continue their refusal to even acknowledge Israel's right to exist.
The conflict's root cause has always been the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Every American president who has tried to broker a peace agreement has collided with that Palestinian intransigence, sooner or later. Recall President Clinton's anguish when his peace proposals were bluntly rejected by the Palestinians in 2000. Settlements were not the key issue then. They are not the key issue now." (World Jewish Congress)
# Obama Phrase Highlights Shift on Middle East - Mark Landler and Helene Cooper
When President Obama declared Tuesday that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a "vital national security interest of the United States," he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests.
Several officials point out that Obama has now seized control of Middle East policy himself, giving Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a list of demands. "The president is re-evaluating the tactics his administration is employing toward Israel and the entire Middle East," said Robert Wexler, a former Democratic congressman who leads the Center for Middle East Peace. "I don't think that anybody believes American lives are endangered or materially affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Wexler, who has close ties to administration officials. "That's an oversimplification. However, you'd have to have blinders on not to recognize that there are issues in one arena that affect other arenas." (New York Times)