POLITICO’S Michael Crowley: Obama Admin Thinks Netanyahu Played the ‘Race Card’

SCHIEFFER: “Michael Crowley — and you mentioned the relationship with Israel. Netanyahu in the heat of this battle says, you know, I’m not for the Palestinian State anymore, and he says a lot of other things. And then he kind of walks it back. But the administration seems to be trying to keep the fight going instead of sort of remaining silent, which is what I would have suggested they do after he walked it back and just tried to repair things behind the scenes, whatever. It seemed like they were trying to, you know, get the last word to the news cycle in. What is the administration’s strategy here?”
CROWLEY: “Yeah, Bob, I think in a way we almost saw kind of exaggerated surprise from the White House, because I think they have doubted for a long time now that Netanyahu was sincere about a two- state solution. But I think couple of things happened. Number one is I think that the president and people around him were viscerally appalled by what they saw Netanyahu say in the closing days of the campaign, particularly Netanyahu was warning his supporters that Arab-Israelis were coming out to vote against his opponents and saying you have to come out because Arabs are coming out. And I think there was a feeling in the White House he essentially played the race card. And you can imagine how that goes over in the West Wing in this White House. But I think there’s also just exasperation that the peace process is not going anywhere under this guy. And that he, as one former Obama official told me, showed his true colors here, that you know he pays lip service to the two state solution, in their view, but he doesn’t really want it.”