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Politico’s Laura Rozen is reporting on the latest White House “public relations blitz,” designed to reassure worried Jewish leaders that President Obama’s year long public confrontation with Israel does in fact have a purpose:

The White House is engaged in an aggressive effort to reassure Jewish leaders that the tense relationship between the Obama administration and the Israeli government that has played out in public in the last few months does not signify any fundamental change in U.S. policy… [A]dministration officials have mounted what amounts to a public relations blitz trying to rectify what they have come to believe is largely a perception problem that Obama is being unreasonably tough or even hostile to Israel — not a substantive disagreement over its Middle East policies.

Their real policy actions are in conflict with their misleading rhetoric to the American Jewish community, as was the case last week in a speech delivered by President Obama’s National Security advisor James Jones, who claimed the Obama administration’s policies made a clear commitment to Israel – apparently ignoring the fact that Obama’s policies have  provoked “harsher rhetoric, and elevated demands, from Palestinian and other Arab leaders.” Of course, this PR offensive is just a cover for their policy of driving a wedge between the United States and our strongest ally in the region. The peace process in the Middle East is now “worse off than before,” and relations with Israel are “uneasy” at best. No wonder New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer blasted Obama’s Israel policies as “counterproductive” last week.

So don’t let the Obama administration’s spin fool you: when it comes to Israel, the Obama administration’s problem isn’t about perception; it’s about the reality of their antagonistic actions.