The negotiations between the "West" and Iran wrapped up in Turkey with promises to meet again in May, this time in Baghdad. The run-up and then the run-down of the talks consumed most of the air time usually devoted to the U.S.-Israel will they/won't they bomb Iran.Today the fraught relationship between President Obama and PM Netanyahu has re-emerged. Issue: No doubt personal relationships are important in foreign affairs; it's hard to credit that they are as central as this column in Haaretz asserts. "Israel and America are not one and the same, of course, and may have found themselves at cross purposes over the Iranian nuclear challenge under different leaders as well, but the troubled history, the divergent ideology and the bad chemistry between Obama and Netanyahu dramatically complicate and exacerbate a situation which is of existential importance to Israel, and of strategic significance, at the very least, to the U.S. as well."The military and intelligence services in both countries have a lot more to say about these matters than are given air time. This Haaretz report suggests that Netanyahu and DM Barak are not on the same page about Iranian enrichment; Barak is meeting with Secy. of Def. Panetta this week.Your take?

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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