Analysis: Netanyahu Outwits Obama Again

[Purveyor]

by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Published: 6:00PM GMT 10 Mar 2010

By the time the two men sat down to dinner with their radiant wives in Jerusalem, the goodwill had turned to ashes in their mouths.

There can scarely have been a sharper change in tone in the diplomatic history of two close allies over the course of a single day.

Mr Biden had begun declaiming America's "absolute" support for Israel.

Minutes later there was an announcement that 1,600 new homes would be built in an Ultra-Orthodox enclave of Arab East Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu pleaded ignorance and spun that he had been blindsided by extremists in his coalition, who control the interior ministry.

American officials exploded with range. The vice-president arrived 90 minutes late for dinner. A statement said the decision was calculated to destroy the indirect proximity talks Washington was about to launch between Israel and the Palestinians.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7414760/Analysis-Netanyahu-outwits-Obama-again.html

[Uzybone]

1. This is more than about Obama

Israeli people need to take a long hard look at their leadership. The media would love to make it Netanyahu vs Obama, but that is pure foolishness.

[thecrow]

7. Thank you for saying that.

To some on here, Obama is to blame for everything.

[tularetom]

2. When one party approaches a meeting in good faith and trusts the other to do the same

that does not constitute being "outwitted".

That story does not make Obama, Biden, or the USA look like suckers, it makes Netanyahu and Israel look like lying sacks of shit.

WTF is it that they think they can continually pull crap like this and still retain our support?

[bemildred]

3. Word. nt

[Ken Burch]

5. Because they've got Congress 'whipped?

n/t.

(Memo to any member of Congress who might be watching...despite what AIPAC screams at you, voting against military aid to Israel is not, repeat NOT, antisemitic.)

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. If they thought Israel was approaching the negotiations in good faith then they're... words fail me

Even most of the most strongly pro-zionist and anti-Palestinian posters on DU acknowledge that Netanyahu isn't interested in peace with the Palestinians and that his goal is to preserve the status quo, not end it.

If Obama and Biden thought otherwise then "suckers" is a relatively mild term for them.

And the reason Israel thinks it can continually pull crap like this and retain US support is that it *can*, sadly - removing or even equivocating about blanket support for Israel, whatever it does, would be electoral suicide in the US.

[RagAss]

4. They don't give a fuck if we live or die...It's a one way deal !

[Pirate Smile]

6. Israel helped Iran. Real smart.

[Jefferson23]

9. And the U.S. will be assigning blame, when? n/t

[howaboutme]

10. It is good that Israel did this

I didn't realize that our US ME policy was discussed in a special forum. It is good that Israel has told Obama to stay out of their business. That way Obama can now put a stop payment on that last $5 billion dollar check to Israel and use it for health care and unemployment insurance for Americans.