I restlessly hunt the planet for people who agree with me; do you? Tonight NBC White House reporter Savannah Guthrie emphasized what I did about the Obama-Netanyahu meeting–tension.
Also, I listened in to a conference call the Israel Policy Forum set up with former Ambassadors Sam Lewis and Oded Eran, and I must confess I only took notes when Lewis was emphasizing disagreement. But with that proviso, here goes Lewis's analysis:
Did you notice that Obama cut off the press conference abruptly? (I did; I thought he was angry.) He did so because he may have been irritated by Netanyahu's using the conference to appeal to his rightwing base back home, and to go on and on about Iran. There was a lot of grandstanding to Netanyahu's base by the P.M.. But if he had said the words "Palestinian state," or actually given Obama something and said he would freeze settlements, his coalition wouldn't hold together "ten minutes."
Netanyahu's insistence that the Palestinians recognize a "Jewish state" is one of those "red herrings" that the Israelis throw into negotiations to stall them.
Lewis figures that there was a lot of contention in the private meeting between the men. He had been expecting a public statement from the men, a shared document. "The fact there wasn't any agreed press statement suggests that there was a lot more tough talk in private."
The key issue in the first meeting of the president of the United States with an Israeli p.m. is, Do the two men establish trust? "I don't know whether that was achieved or not. I would say watching the press conference… it has yet to be achieved."
Both ambassadors said it was significant that neither man made any reference to the Arab peace initiative. The entire Arab neighborhood is behind that plan. Mum's the word. Obama may have as much to protect on that point–political exposure/the Israel lobby–as Netanyahu does (as a questioner suggested).
Obama's anger may have also involved the calculated ploy involving his wife begin swept up in Sara Netanyahu's psychodramas: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1086220.html
Someone in the responses just made me hoot. The suggestion was that Michelle is an interesting busy woman and that Sara take her embroidery or knitting with her. Or pay the "other Sarah" in Alaska a visit and learn to hunt moose. As for the two men, this is actually interesting. Somehow I still feel there is a certain amount of play acting involved, a bit of a theatrical set up for something to come down the line. I am sorry but I never trust a politician and I truly believe there is very very little happenstance in Washington.
Obama's meeting with Natenyahoo was not as dramatic as people were predicting it would be.
They don't call him "No Drama Obama" for nuttin'!
All said before the cameras (very loud) by the two speaking in turns (muffled, lower audio) was long-standing status quo rhetoric–except Obama did buy N's new slant that we have to increase Pal economic development (sans any mention Israel was the cause of lack of development), and he did say he didn't want any unrealistically short negotiation time line, while on the other hand, he didn't want negotiations without any end time.
I expect that there was a lot of tension between them. The areas of agreement are pre-existing (commercial ties, support for Israel's defense), but the areas of disagreement are in Obama's policies that are distinct from Bush's. Netanyahu didn't appear to get anything on this interraction.