In reaction to yesterday’s endorsement by the Obama administration of the recent formation of a Palestinian unity government, Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz wrote a scathing critique of the administration’s approach to Israel.

Horovitz, who is often critical of Israel’s current government, writes in 12 Ways the US Administration has Failed its Ally Israel:

What was saddest about Washington’s insistence on accepting Abbas’s paper-thin veneer over his government’s new nature — his “technocrat” ministers were all approved by Hamas — is that it represents only the Obama administration’s latest abrogation of leadership, logic and leverage at Israel’s expense.

A number of  the criticisms that Horovitz levels at the Obama administration involve the recent negotiations sponsored by Secretary of State John Kerry that ended in failure. Horovitz wrote that the failure was predictable and that “it would have been better for the US and its international allies to start working systematically, investing time, money and leverage in, among other spheres, education and media, in order to create a climate conducive to progress.” Horovitz faults the administration for not making “plain to the Palestinians that their demand, as a precondition for renewing peace talks, that Israel set free terrorists who have killed large numbers of its innocent citizens was outrageous and unacceptable” and for “lumping all ‘settlements’ together, and relentlessly criticizing all building,” thus “alienat[ing] the Israeli middle ground.”

Once the various missteps made an agreement unlikely, Horovitz blasts the administration for then putting all the blame on Israel. In the beginning of March, President Obama gave an interview to Jeffrey Goldberg as Prime Minister Netanyahu was on his way to America, saying that he could no longer defend Israel if the peace talks fail. Horovitz observed that “such withering public comments are hardly likely to bolster the prime minister’s faith in the president’s judgment and solidarity.” When the talks collapsed, a State Department official, thought to be Martin Indyk, offered “distorted blame for the collapse of the process on the prime minister,” to Israeli columnist Nachum Barnea. Horovitz faults Secretary of State John Kerry for describing Israeli actions, rather than his own miscalculations, for the talks’ collapse – in Kerry’s words, the “poof moment”  – and later for carelessly using the word “apartheid” to describe Israel.

But Horovitz didn’t just fault the administration for its handling of the peace process. He also criticized the administration for “repeatedly tell[ing] the world that Israel has struck weapons shipments in Syria en route to Hezbollah,” for “rushing to support Islamic extremists when they come to power in a neighboring state,” and, finally, for its “disinclination to use its economic leverage to achieve a deal that dismantles Iran’s nuclear program leaves Israel in real danger, undermines the security of other US interests in the region, and risks sparking a Middle East nuclear arms race.”

In the end, Horovitz concludes, ” Israel may not be a perfect ally, but we deserve better than this.”