Where Obama first demanded that Israel would agree to a total settlement freeze before resuming the peace process in the Middle East, he has now agreed to let Israel “restrain its settlement activities.

Additionally, Israelis, Palestinians and, yes, America won’t insist on any other preconditions.

That’s a major defeat for Obama. He wanted to put more pressure on Israel than any other president did before him. And he has failed. Netanyahu did not bend even a little bit; he knows what he wants and what he’s willing to give, and all the threats of the Obama administration make no difference whatsoever.

Obama is having a terrible first year. He hasn’t accomplished anything domestically and he’s also failing big time internationally.

He is, as British leftist columnist Steven Hill and establishment journalist Edward Lucas have noticed as well, simply incompetent.

And that’s bad news for he is and remains for at least 3.5 years more president of the most powerful country on earth – whether we like it or not.