Obama must have set a record for being the U.S. president who most quickly failed in his effort to secure Mid-East peace this past week at the United Nations. Bush Sr. and Clinton both failed at the end of their four and eight year, respectively, terms and Bush did not even try.

But Obama immediately jumped into the process; calling regional leaders on his second day and appointing an envoy on the third. And for month the administration kept up pressure on Israel to force the Jewish state to stop the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Netanyahu continued to buck Obama. And instead of the most powerful man in the world using U.S. aid ($3 billion) and diplomatic support for Israel as leverage and threatening a cut in aid and an end to vetos at the United Nations, Obama has given into Netanyahu’s bullying intransigent behavior.

The demand for a “freeze” turned into a call for Israeli “restrain” in a public statement with Netanyahu standing right next to Obama. Months of stalemate and Obama has lost in front of the world. This is the man who wants to led the world and he can’t even get Israel to stop illegal settlements, something that shouldn’t even be an issue.

Netanyahu, always classy, did not waste a moment to gloat: “Restraint and freeze are two different things.” And so they are. We’ve all seen this story before. Once again Israel will be able to build illegal settlements on more and more Palestinian land. As The Economist recently noted:

Year after year, under Israeli governments of every stripe, the settlements have butted into Palestinian land, eroding a would-be Palestinian state. Since 1993, when a peace deal that eventually failed was signed in Oslo, the number of settlers in the West Bank and the mainly Arab east side of Jerusalem has grown by more than 200,000. In this way Israel has flouted all the big agreements under American and international auspices. Yet no American administration, bar briefly that of George Bush senior, has ever penalised Israel for its settlement-building. Palestinians therefore utterly disbelieve American protestations of even-handedness.

And Obama had the temerity to state that the United States will play an honest role in a new peace process. The Palestinians are tired of an empty process, they do not want their grievances heard but brought to an end. What will happen now is clear, Israel will not build new settlements but greatly expand the existing ones so as to further undermine the ability of a viable Palestinian state to emerge.

Obama has been a complete failure, the Israelis have shown they can act with impunity against the wishes of a popular U.S. president, Palestinians have less of a reason to trust the United States after this about-face, and Arabs and Muslims who had begun to put faith in the U.S. now see once again that the United States seems to be incapable for being fair between Israel and the Arabs. Obama had built credibility on this issue and for months Arabs and Muslims had given Obama credibility given his strong pressure on Israel, but Obama blinked first and all his credibility is lost. He now appears weak and a coward who let the Israelis dominate over him and dictate the rules.

Obama should now spare the world his empty words of trying to seek peace. Cut aid to Israel first, and then talk. Instead he lets Netanyahu behave like he’s the head of a superpower. All this in just nine months. A record, indeed.