Diplomat: US Like a Weaponless Sheriff in the Mideast 'Wild West'

JERUSALEM, Israel -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their wives met in Jerusalem Wednesday to talk about the solidarity between the two countries.

While American and Israeli leaders often praise the relationship between the United States and Israel, Israelis have increasingly lost confidence in President Barack Obama's policies toward Israel and the Middle East during his term in office.

That concern has been reflected in polls. Nearly eight out of 10 Israelis believe the Iranian nuclear deal, negotiated by the United States and other world powers, puts Israel in danger.

A poll last year showed only 9 percent of Israelis felt President Obama was "pro-Israel," while 60 percent said he's "pro-Palestinian." More than 60 percent of Israelis described Obama as the worst U.S. president for Israel in the past 30 years.

"When Israelis view Obama putting his trust at the U.N., considering the U.N. to be the quarterback of international relations, we cannot have doubts about the realism coming out of the White House," former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yoram Ettinger told CBN News.

Ettinger, who served as the Israeli liaison to Congress, says the lack of U.S. leadership and the so-called "leading from behind" is what frightens Israel and America's allies in the region.

"Ever since Obama has entered the White House, there has been a devastating erosion of America's posture of deterrence, which has been bad for America but doubly so for America's allies throughout the world, but especially in the wildest neighborhood in the whole world, which is the Middle East," Ettinger said.

"It resembles a new sheriff in town who announces publicly that he carries no gun in his holster," he continued. "Allies of America – Israel included – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Abu Daubi, Dubai, Kuwait, we all want the American sheriff to bring back the gun to the holster and to assert itself."

Despite the concerns about the Obama administration, Ettinger says while Israelis may not like Obama's policies, the relationship between Israel and the United States remains strong.

"While at the top we do not have positive chemistry between the two leaders, the strategic cooperation between the two countries commercially and militarily are at an all-time high – sometimes in defiance of the president, but again due to the American public and American Congress," he said.