Chait deconstructs it:
Obama's international strategy is pretty much the same thing as Obama's domestic political strategy. The first part involves extending a hand to your adversary and demonstrating your own reasonableness. Assuming they don't take it, the second involves more traditional hardball politics. In this case, Obama is using the method to defend the traditional U.S.-Israel alliance, but it works the same way for advocating Democratic positions on jobs or the deficit or health care. Obama always starts out his strategy alarming his allies.
If you are going to attack, make it seem as if you have been left no other option. Because, in Obama's case, he often has no other option. But it is the demonstration of that – even if it means his own temporary humiliation – that allows for more radicalism. I guess it's how a black man pushes the envelope. After asking everybody very nicely for agreement first.
The Dish 