In the stare-down with Benjamin Netanyahu, Barack Obama just blinked.

Obama had demanded hat Israel freeze its settlements on the West Bank, which have more than doubled since the Oslo Accord was signed in 1993.

Those settlements are illegal under international law.

But Netanyahu refused to budge and insisted on building more settlements, so Obama budged instead and essentially dropped the demand.

Having folded early, Obama then curiously upped the ante, saying he wanted to push Israel and the Palestinians forward toward a comprehensive peace agreement.

That’s been a losing bet for many years.

Israel has been doing everything in its power to pour sand in the engine of Oslo.

And while Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah have been willing to negotiate, Hamas is another matter altogether.

A comprehensive peace settlement is even more improbable now, though, after Obama showed how easily he could be rolled by Netanyahu.

The Israelis now have no incentive to go along with Washington’s demands, since they’ll suspect, and probably correctly, that Obama will cave again.

And the Palestinians have even less reason to cooperate, seeing Obama bow to Netanyahu and give up on the basic issue of the settlements.

As the Israeli dissident Uri Avnery puts it:

Netanyahu

Has won:

Obama

Has swallowed

The frog.

How much

Shall we

Have to pay

For that

In the future?

Obama’s embarrassing display of weakness will only embolden the Israeli hardliners and undermine those Palestinians who were willing to negotiate with the Israelis in the first place. It’s a lose-lose in a place that only knows loss.