Obama 'humiliated' Netanyahu at meeting

[shaayecanaan]

According to leaked accounts reported in the Israeli media, Mr Obama humiliated Mr Netanyahu by leaving the meeting early.

''I'm going to the residential wing to have dinner with Michelle and the girls,'' Mr Obama reportedly said, adding that Mr Netanyahu should consult his aides about goodwill gestures Israel was prepared to make towards the Palestinians before renewed peace talks. '''I'm still around,'' he said. ''Let me know if there is anything new.''

Sort of like James Baker's remark: "When you're interested in peace, call us."

One congressman who met Mr Netanyahu after his White House meeting said: ''It was awful. Netanyahu looked excessively concerned and upset. He waved around those pages, eager to persuade us that because of the complicated approval process for issuing construction permits in Jerusalem, one could never know in advance when a decision would be published on the issue.''

And these last bits are the best...

Writing in the Israeli Maariv, columnist Ben Caspit said there was no humiliation exercise the Americans did not try on Mr Netanyahu. ''Bibi received in the White House the treatment reserved for the president of Equatorial Guinea,'' Caspit wrote.

Yedioth Ahronoth said the White House ambushed Mr Netanyahu. ''Everything was scrupulously planned, most likely, and the Israeli Premier, perhaps the most sought-after personage in the Oval Office in the past two decades, was received like the last of the wazirs from Lower Senegal.''

The consensus among Israeli commentators is that the US will continue to exert more pressure on Israel to move swiftly towards the creation of a Palestinian state.

''The US is abandoning us and effectively turning into Europe,'' Caspit wrote. ''From now on, we are completely alone. The entire world, from one end to another, talks about a Palestinian state inside territory similar to 1967.''

http://www.smh.com.au/world/obama-humiliated-netanyahu-at-meeting-20100325-r000.html?autostart=1

[Taverner]

1. Belligerent Likud being belligerent Likud

Fuck Likud

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. not enough. not nearly enough.

Time to cut funding, and to stop all deliveries of mines and cluster bombs to them.

[geckosfeet]

3. The only thing that they are worried about is the pipeline for US aid.

[MindandSoul]

4. Well, I'm glad Israel is no longer the driver. . .time to remind them

that they would have been gone long ago without our support. . .and that if they want that support to continue, they should consider being civil not only to the U.S. administration, but also to their closest neighbors!

[SPedigrees]

5. Well said. nt

[Old and In the Way]

6. Hopefully, moderates and left-of-center Israeli's will get more

voice in their government. The Right Wingers running Israel today will never be the answer to a lasting peace...because it is in their interests to keep Israel in a state of isolated fear.

[Demoiselle]

7. "Treatment reserved for the president of Equatorial Guinea?...

...was received like the last of the wazirs from Lower Senegal?"

Don't both of these comments, coming from two different Israelis, sound profoundly arrogant and, well, racist?

I didn't know we've been intentionally rude to Equatorial Guinea and Lower Senegal. (IS there a Lower Senegal?)

[LeftishBrit]

11. Maybe he's mixing America up with Britain re Equatorial Guinea?

People associated with Britain were a bit more than 'rude' to the President of Equatorial Guinea. The British former officer, and later mercenary, Simon Mann backed an unsuccessful plot to overthrow the president of that country, and most notoriously Maggie Thatcher's son Mark was found to have provided financial support.

Equatorial Guinea receives a bit more attention in the West than most African countries, probably because it has some oil.

I can't really think of much relevance to the Israeli situation, however.

[shaayecanaan]

13. A common delusion amongst Israelis...

is to conflate the amount of attention that Israel receives (large) with the amount of power and influence that it has (small). Remarks in the above article such as the Israeli prime minister being "the most sought-after personage in the White House during the last two decades" (scoff) are manifestations of this.

Or, for example, when Israelis propose that they should abandon their alliance with the United States and align themselves with China or Russia instead. The fact that neither China nor Russia have the slightest interest in such an alliance seems not to perturb them.

[LeftishBrit]

19. I think that's a VERY good point

It is one thing that many Israelis (and pro-Israelis) and many anti-Zionists have in common: overestimating the influence of Israel, in part because it does arouse a lot of public attention.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

21. I think the Israeli right has immense indirect influence in the US.

An awful lot of right-wing Christian voters in the US - which is to say, an awful lot of voters in the US - passionately support Israel's territorial expansion.

That means in practice that a) the Israeli government and b) the Israeli right wing - usually the same thing - can wield considerable influence on US policy on the ME.

I would be very interested to see what happened if a genuinely left-wing/peacenik government came to power in Israel - I don't know how either AIPAC and co would respond to it, or how Israel's backers on the American Christian right would.

[bemildred]

22. They would not like it, there is no money to be made in that sort of thing.

To make money you need a crisis, not resolution of the crisis. And once the crisis is resolved one would have to govern well and allow for the normal rule of law and so on. And if you think it is not all about money and political expediency, then you are not as cynical as I am.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

23. I'm sure it's not about money, and I'm immensely cynical.

The amount of money the US spends on Israel is enormous when considered per Israeli capita, but small when considered per US capita, especially when compared against the sum lost due to bad PR.

The American right supports the Israeli settlements for ideological reasons, I'm certain.

[bemildred]

24. It can be about money without being just about money. nt

[LeftishBrit]

8. I think that Netanyahu is quite capable of humiliating himself without help!

Incidentally, Caspit - who seems to be a typical right-wing and sensationalist journalist who would fit quite well on the Daily Mail - was once sued by Netanyahu's wife for supposedly libelling her!

[mwrguy]

9. Get used to it.

The neocons aren't in charge anymore.

[islandmkl]

10. "...and, by the way...

did i mention those fucking settlement houses, yet?

or, shall i call joe in and let him explain that to you?"

[Scurrilous]

12. Payback's a @#$%.

:thumbsup:

[breakaleg]

14. Isn't it though!

[ProgressiveMuslim]

16. I'm actually glad that an Israeli leader is being honest about the intentions of the gov't.

Better someone who speaks reality than a "dove" who speaks the right words but continues with pretty much the same actions.

[azurnoir]

15. Good hopefully this will continue n/t

[Christa]

17. Boo hoo

It is time to show the bully what we think of him.

[bemildred]

18. Did he make Bibi sit lower?

[Jefferson23]

20. lol