From the news reports coming from the meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu it is safe to say the alarmist predictions of a blow up or confrontation proved to be unfounded. As Elliott Abrams predicted in his useful piece a week or so ago, the mainstream press is sizing the body language to look for “signs.” But neither leader is desirous of a blowup. The JTA headline offers: “Obama: Won’t Talk Forever on Iran.” Well, that’s a relief because forever is a long time. And of course Obama said firm but nonthreatening things about settlements, and, as one might expect, Netanyahu talked favorably of “the full range of discussions with the Palestinians.”

Consider the can kicked down the road. But what does this mean and what plan does Obama have for actually halting Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons? Well, I suspect he does not have one. The grim reality may be that there is no plan, that the time for sanctions and serious diplomatic pressure is running out — or already has. There will be hard choices for Israel and the U.S. down the road but not today.

Another reality: so long as a viable partner with full authority to negotiate a lasting peace on behalf of the Palestinians is absent, the “pressure” on Israel is ephemeral. To whom exactly is Israel supposed to talk and about what? At this point the “peace process” devolves, if one is honest, to (at most) the sort of confidence-building and economic discussions Netanyahu has touted.

For now Obama has more than enough foreign policy dilemmas crowding out his cherished domestic agenda. The last thing he wanted was a needless public fight with Israel. And so he avoided it.