The mood music was noticeably different after President Barack Obama's latest meeting with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and it is worth wondering why. The Tuesday encounter was widely expected to be as rancorous as its predecessor.

Not only had the two leaders not previously hit it off but the Israelis had done little if anything to ease Obama’s frustration at their obdurate policies.

Yet at the end of their talks there was Obama averring that US ties with Israel were “unbreakable”, praising the partial lifting of its entirely illegal Gaza blockade and calling unrealistically for an immediate resumption of direct talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

What on earth can it be that has caused the president to pull back from his increasingly confrontational approach to the right-wing Likud- led coalition? What has caused him seemingly to take up the sterile old Bush song sheet of urging on talks in conditions that he should by now understand are deeply unacceptable to the Palestinian side?

At the very least he could have hoped that Netanyahu would agree to an extension to the albeit partial freeze on the building of new illegal settlements on Palestinian land. The September deadline for the conclusion of the proximity talks is now clearly unachievable but the Israeli premier could have kept some momentum in the process by offering a further three or even six months’ suspension. Yet not even that concession was on the table, because as commentators were quick to point out, Netanyahu insisted he could not get his coalition to endorse it.

So what is going on? Is Obama in fact conducting a clever inside play that will end up putting even greater pressure on the Israelis to make genuine compromises in the search for peace? Or has someone within the administration persuaded the president that he cannot push his frustration with Israeli obduracy to a showdown with the powerful US Zionist lobby? It would be comforting to believe the former, but the chances are surely that the president has just been brought back sharply into line.

There was, therefore, little comfort in the apparent outcome of the White house meeting for the Palestinians, no next step upon which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can build. Instead, it just looked suspiciously like a return to US-Israeli business as usual. When Obama said after the talks he believed Netanyahu wanted peace and was prepared to take risks to achieve it, the Palestinian guffaws were probably audible for miles.

Israel will only take peace seriously if it appreciates that the price of further obfuscation and deliberate delay will be unacceptably high. The US should be threatening to turn off the money taps. Now, however, it looks as if Obama has returned to the old Washington policy of offering Israel a free ride. It is deeply depressing. Unless the presi- dent has a surprise up his sleeve and is preparing to exert more subtle leverage on the Israelis, Tuesday’s encounter flags an about turn in US Middle East policy with dire consequences for everyone, not least the Palestinians.