US-Israel relations to remain strained after Netanyahu's re-election

As such, disagreements over how to handle Iran's nuclear program have magnified tensions between the two sides. Phillips added that Netanyahu's government believes Obama is naively seeking a flawed nuclear deal with Iran that would jeopardize Israeli national security interests.

Netanyahu believes Obama prematurely relaxed the sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy and caused its currency to plunge. The hardline leader also criticized Obama's diplomacy for undermining the US bargaining leverage, and is setting the bar too low for a deal by departing from UN Security Council resolutions that called on Iran to halt all uranium enrichment, Phillips said.

Kaye noted that the frustration within the Obama administration toward Netanyahu's positions, both on a potential deal with Iran as well as policies related to the Palestinians, has been brewing for some time.

In his televised speech to US Congress earlier this month, Netanyahu sounded the alarm for his country's survival, blasting the deal Obama is trying to hammer out with Tehran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

"This is a bad deal -- a very bad deal. We're better off without it," Netanyahu said, adding that the deal will "guarantee" that Iran acquires nuclear weapons. Iran has insisted that its intentions are peaceful, and that its nuclear program is intended to provide cheap energy.

Obama, who told the UN General Assembly 18 months ago that he would seek real breakthroughs on both Iran's nuclear program and Israeli-Palestinian peace, and views Netanyahu as a potential obstacle to his preferred ways of achieving the duel objectives.

Kaye said that while the security and military relationship between the US and Israel is as strong as it's ever been, undoubtedly it has a political crisis.

Still, such crises have been seen in the past, and the US-Israel relations are unlikely to be permanently damaged, she said.