Israel Matzav: Why didn't Obama call of the ambush?

Why didn't Obama call of the ambush?

Noah Pollak takes Prime Minister Netanyahu's explanation for not coming to Washington for President Obama's nuclear summit at face value and asks an interesting question: Why didn't Obama just call off Egypt and Turkey's ambush?

The critical issue is why they believed they had a green light to engage in such theatrics. Upon hearing of the ambush they were planning, Obama or Clinton could have sent a very clear message to the Turkish prime minister and the Egyptian dictator: “You either come to Washington and behave yourselves, or stay home. This is a respectable conference, not a platform for anti-Israel grandstanding.”

But clearly, Obama made no such call, and clearly he did not instruct the secretary of state to deliver a 43-minute tongue-lashing to the leaders of either country, as she has recently shown herself capable of doing. There are two possible explanations, and I’m not sure which is more disturbing. Obama either welcomed the prospect of another humiliation of Netanyahu, or he was afraid to stand up to two Muslim leaders. Perhaps both are true.

In his pettiness, Obama has once again lost perspective on what really matters. What could have been a useful opportunity to present a unified front against Iran’s nuclear ambitions has now descended into a spectacle of pointless drama not terribly dissimilar from a meeting of the Arab League. In his decision to indulge Middle East leaders in their obsessive desire to castigate Israel, Obama has once again shown his utter lack of interest in confronting the real threat to America’s national security.

I don't think Netanyahu would have trusted Obama even if he had said that he made that call. Other than that, both of Noah's explanations are plausible.

Israel Matzav: Why didn't Obama call of the ambush?