Here's some more on the "spat." (Previous: Is Israel a Banana Republic with a Banana History? Obama Seems to Think So.)

Power Line has a pair of good posts: Obama's latest pretext for attacking Israel and Condemn This. Lots of links in those, but I wanted to emphasize a couple that make points I also wanted to highlight.

First Rick Richman makes the point that the neighborhood in question, Ramat Shlomo, is going to be a part of Israel in any conceivable future (or proposed past) peace plan, revealing the entire exercise as a worthless farce, and Carl goes on to note the extremely strategic nature of the are.

Robin Shepherd notes that in order to continue with this farce, the media must be complicit with their stilted coverage: The rationale behind censorship: "Moderate" Palestinian leadership honours mass terrorism as Joe Biden leaves town. And the BBC's response is? Here is the type of extreme incitement that media of all stripes has been complicit in covering up and thus removing ALL CONTEXT from what's going on: PA calls Arabs to 'defend al Aksa' That's the kind of thing that gets and is intended to get, people killed, and the Palestinian Authority is doing it itself without a word of protest from Washington. Off to the slaughter in silence.

Related is Bruce Kesler's piece involving the Hurva Synagogue: Netanyahu is being Sharoned by the Obama Administration

Also, at Z Word: Meanwhile, in Ramallah...

Update: Via Soccer Dad, Mark Perry says it all started with a briefing from our military: The Petraeus briefing: Biden's embarrassment is not the whole story. Mark Perry is the ultimate name-dropping insider, and this is just the type of story he'd love to show how in the know he is, but I would question whether this was really something all that unusual. This can hardly be the first time someone told an administration that appeasing Arabs was the new direction we should be taking. So the questions are: Did it "take" this time? Why? Did this briefing really happen and was it as significant as Perry makes it out to be, or is someone just using Perry to circulate another manipulative rumor? Far more data is necessary.