Israelis, Palestinians: Obama Is the Problem

It’s not just people in the U.S. who are upset with President Barack Obama. Israelis and Palestinians, who agree on very little, are in accord that the president is to blame for their political stalemate, Politico reports.

To be sure, both sides in the Middle East dispute have never been willing to acknowledge that their own hard-line stances don’t exactly create an environment for peace to suddenly flourish. Nonetheless, they expected much from the new American leader and feel they have received little.

Not everyone even takes the president seriously. “He’s like rain,” a top Israeli official involved in diplomacy with the U.S. says, referring to Obama’s role in negotiations. “You can do all kinds of things to cope with it.”