The brinksmanship between Israel and the US over the Gaza War was stepped up on Tuesday, as the Israelis leaked the transcript of a phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama.

Israeli officials sabotaged the ceasefire effort of US Secretary of State John Kerry last weekend by giving his proposal to the diplomatic correspondent of Haaretz and roundly criticizing Kerry for being too receptive to Hamas’s conditions for a halt to fighting.

In public, Washington appeared to mend fences, echoing Israel’s demand for “demilitarization” of Gaza and praising Netanyahu’s willingness to discuss a ceasefire.

However, this evening Israel’s Channel 1 TV has published the claimed transcript of the Obama-Netanyahu conversation — and it portrays the US President giving the Prime Minister a command to halt military operations:

OBAMA: I demand that Israel agrees to an immediate, unilateral ceasefire and halt all offensive activities, in particular airstrikes.

NETANYAHU: And what will Israel receive in exchange for a ceasefire?

OBAMA: I believe that Hamas will cease its rocket fire — silence will be met with silence.

NETANYAHU: Hamas broke all five previous ceasefires. It’s a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

OBAMA: I repeat and expect Israel to stop all its military activities unilaterally. The pictures of destruction in Gaza distance the world from Israel’s position.

NETANYAHU: Kerry’s proposal was completely unrealistic and gives Hamas military and diplomatic advantages.

OBAMA: Within a week of the end of Israel’s military activities, Qatar and Turkey will begin negotiations with Hamas based on the 2012 understandings, including Israel’s commitment to removing the siege and restrictions on Gaza.

NETANYAHU: Qatar and Turkey are the biggest supporters of Hamas. It’s impossible to rely on them to be fair mediators.

OBAMA: I trust Qatar and Turkey. Israel is not in the position that it can choose its mediators.

NETANYAHU: I protest because Hamas can continue to launch rockets and use tunnels for terror attacks —

OBAMA: (interrupting Netanyahu) The ball’s in Israel’s court, and it must end all its military activities.

The White House has already protested:

Neither the reports nor the alleged transcript bear any resemblance to reality. It’s shocking and disappointing that someone would sink to misrepresenting a private conversation between the President and the Prime Minister in fabrications to the Israeli press.

Soon Netanyahu’s office put out — word-for-word — the exact same denunciation.

Indeed, the stilted language in the “transcript” reads more like a rough summary of what Obama and Netanyahu may have said, with exaggeration of the rhetoric used by each leader — or it may even be a fabrication.

But the point is not whether the record of the conversation is “real”.

The point is that this what someone wants the publics in Israel and the US to believe has taken place between Obama and Netanyahu.

And right that, the possibility of that “someone” being within the Israeli Government cannot be excluded.

For this leak, whether or not the conversation occurred, is an extension and escalation of the Israeli tactic at the weekend. Having tried to discredit Kerry in the eyes of Americans, those officials pursuing a tough line are now ready to do the same with Obama if the President does not accept West Jerusalem’s lines for military operations and any political terms to be put to Hamas.

So will Obama stand firm or will he cave in?

Will Netanyahu disown the Israeli pressure? Is someone even more hawkish in the Israeli Government behind this ploy? Or could the Prime Minister be playing a double game, publicly tut-tutting at the violation of diplomacy but privately trying to push Obama against the political wall?