There is hope for Barack and Bibi.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The meeting between Israel's new prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US president Barack Obama later this month has already had quite a bit of media coverage . The fact that both leaders have come into office only recently and are therefore still in the process of formulating their policies leaves plenty of room for speculation about whether they will have compatible positions on the Middle East, or if they will differ too much to avoid a clash.

The view that there is "a clear difference in approach" that makes a collision likely, as the Guardian's Simon Tisdall has recently argued , is widely regarded as plausible -- both by those who are concerned about this prospect, and by those who believe that the US should distance itself from Israel. The expectation that Obama and Netanyahu will not get along too well reflects the picture painted …