Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu was re-elected for the fourth time and, so quick after his victory in the polls, he backtracked on something very important that he had said on the campaign trail.

Before the Israelis went to cast their vote, Netanyahu had declared that if he were re-elected, he wouldn’t agree to the establishment of a Palestinian State.

In other words, a ‘‘two-State solution’’ (where both Israel and Palestine would be states on the map) was suddenly off the table. However, last Tuesday, after his victory was confirmed, he said that he was actually very much in favour of a two-State solution!

Since a two-State solution is high on President Barack Obama’s to-do list, this whole affair has not gone down well in the White House. It did not want to hear Netanyahu’s sudden change of heart, saying that his pre-election comments had forced the United States to ‘‘re-evaluate’’ its strategy for peace in the Middle East.

The United States and Israel have always been very close. For years, the US has supported Israel by rejecting a UN resolution that would recognise Palestinian statehood and instead favoured talks that would include the Israelis.

When is this sort of behaviour going to stop? Next century?