Well, it seems that after Obama's visit to Jolly Old England, not all is well between the world's closest pair of friends.
Far from painting each others' nails and watching chick flicks, the U.S. and the U.K. seem to seriously disagree about Palestinian statehood and action on Libya.
While the U.K. is contemplating endorsing Palestine's U.N. bid for statehood, the U.S. is worried that such action could potentially isolate Israel and demonstrate to the world that the two Western nations are not as close as they appear to be.
Additionally, while the Obama administration has taken a cautious and rhetorical approach to Libya, Cameron is contemplating escalating the air campaign on Qaddafi's forces.
In terms of Israel, endorsing the Palestinian claim to statehood in the near future would hurt both the peace process and U.S. interests. Israel would never see the Palestinian bid as legitimate because they had no say in it. Rather than staying at the negotiating table, it is then likely that the two countries with competing claims on statehood for the same territory could find themselves embroiled in a nasty armed conflict...one that could potentially go nuclear. This is especially true if Israel pursues its feared "Samson Option," in which, in a use-it-or-lose-it sense, it detonates all of its nuclear weapons at once.
This is why Britain needs to support the U.S. in backing off on endorsing Palestine's bid.
Libya is a bit more complicated. The Obama administration has certainly been ramping up its rhetoric in support of a democratic transition, but it hasn't done very much. If the U.S. doesn't join the U.K. in stepping up efforts to remove Qaddafi from power, the rebels who do end up taking over the country will have an excuse to hate the U.S. The benefits of inaction are not worth creating a new enemy in North Africa.
The U.S.-U.K. relationship is still likely to be the most unshakeable alliance in the world-- but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue to try and align on some of the world's most dangerous security issues.
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