TALK TO EACH OTHER, PLEASE – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  Last week John Kerry went before a Congressional committee and announced that Americans were actually safer today than they had been, and that terrorism was exaggerated.

The very next day the director of national intelligence also appeared before a Congressional committee and said that, in his almost half century of service in the intelligence services, he's never been as concerned as he is now.  He and Kerry apparently don't meet too often.

And then Susan Rice, the national security adviser, made a statement to the effect that Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress is destructive of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.  And now Kerry is saying this, from The Hill: 

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday contradicted National Security Advisor Susan Rice, saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "welcome to speak" in the U.S.

“The prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously,” Kerry said on ABC’s "This Week."

“We have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history,” he added

Kerry's remarks come just days before Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a controversial address to a joint session of Congress that has sparked tensions between President Obama’s administration and Netanyahu. The world leader will address the Iranian nuclear threat while on the Hill.

National Security Advisor Susan Rice called the speech “destructive” to U.S.-Israel relations last week. More than two-dozen Democrats are also boycotting Netanyahu’s address, according to a whip list compiled by The Hill.

COMMENT:  I think Obama should hold a summer retreat, allowing members of his administration to meet each other, tell jokes, exchange pictures of family dogs, and have hamburgers.  This retreat is especially important since there's no leadership coming from the top. Foreign policy, and policy involving terrorism, are critical, and yet members of the administration send mixed signals to our allies and enemies.

The first step in improving this situation is to get Obama interested.  Mission impossible.

March 1, 2015