After the G20 press conference Obama and Sarkozy chatted in a private room but the conversation wasn't so private:
The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: "I cannot stand him. He is a liar." According to the report, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!"
The remark was naturally meant to be said in confidence, but the two leaders' microphones were accidently left on, making the would-be private comment embarrassingly public.
The communication faux pas went unnoticed for several minutes, during which the conversation between the two heads of state – which quickly reverted to other matters – was all but open to members the press, who were still in possession of headsets provided by the Elysée for the sake of simultaneous translation during the G20 press conference.
Fun.
lol!
shudder the thought they’d be able to do something together constructively…. just getting beyond the psychopaths they have to work with on the world stage must be a huge challenge…
Wow, a rare moment where Obama and Sarkozy both actually said something true.
Even more interesting, I thought, was this:
Journalism no longer even pretends to be more than a branch of the entertainment industry.
Peace&Justice: Suggested revision: “Journalism no longer even pretends to be more than a branch of government flackery.” Sensitivity would make it MORE entertaining. FLACKERY is what moves media to suppress.
Recall when Jesse Jackson got stung making a remark about “Hymietown” when he thought he wouldn’t be heard? Politicians (sort of) know about microphones these days, sooooo * * *
Might this exchange have been intentional? On the theory that politicians will not be believed unless their speech is (apparently) intended to be private?
First response was whoa go Sarkozy. Then that was the sentence that jumped out at me
“A member of the media confirmed Monday that “there were discussions between journalists and they agreed not to publish the comments due to the sensitivity of the issue.”
It all sounds questionable. So if journalist agreed. How did this get out and confirmed.
Was so great that France voted yes.
With at least 10% of their population being Muslim why would you expect France to vote any other way?
what? you think it is only because of a 10% population of muslims france voted the way it did? what about the other 90%?
Behold appeasement and French duplicity.
The president of the United States, the leader of the free world, the most powerful man on the planet; helpless. Frustrated, with no recourse, by the leader of a teeny tiny little colonial project half way around the world.
Gettin shown up by the French now…..unreal. :)
Obama has to deal with him every day? Jesus Christ. That ex-pat is taking up our President’s time when we need the Prez’s attention on domestic issues.
“Two pots calling the kettle black”.
Lovely.
Poor Netanyahu, the least popular gangster among gangsters…
:)) gangsta talk.
But I bet: “it’s still all good in tha hood” .
Gangstas are known for their big like a barn, forgiving hearts.
I would like to hear the audio on this one. LOL. Tell me what you really think, Sarkozy.
journalists and truth-lovers everywhere do so love moments of candor from our political class and other powerful people … because they are so rare … we’ve all grown to expect and have become inured to the pre-packaged spin
… as for Netanyahu, it is no secret that he is one noxious human being
There’s a hundred ways to piss the message when you’re passed off, a microphone ‘on’ is one of them – Starting to like Sarko ;) ,…
blah blah blah, it never happened, it is pure nonsense. I’ll believe it once there is an audio recording released.
did you bother reading the rest of the link? it’s kinda hard to keep under wraps with so many witnesses.
Like I’ve been saying, annie, people like him think like Holocaust deniers.
haha! It’s ynet, and they’re in your section!
lol! who can ya trust…………………….
Guess who the despicable israel-firster is?
Hiding behind the word ‘America’ is your clue.
LOL
Am_America won’t be happy til he sees the DNA evidence!
Hey Am_America, you were wrong.
Remindes me an another comment inspired by ‘leaders’ like Bibi and Avi 10
years ago by French Ambassador to Great Britain, Daniel Bernard ,…
link to news.bbc.co.uk
What Bernard meant to say was “Israel, that shitty little country that gives decent Jews a bad name.”
Does anyone recall an incident around the beginnings of Operation Cast Lead when Bush let slip something about going after Hamas with the mic left on. I think Blair might have been there too. Interestingly the press had no problems with reporting that.
Are you referring to the quip about Syria, when Bush said something along the lines of, “Assad needs to get his s*** together”?
I think that was the same summit when Bush gave Merkel a back rub that almost jolted her out of her seat. Talk about inappropriate.
You’re right Avi – my bad memory. It’s Bush about Hezbollah not Hamas.
Here it is on this wikipedia page.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Now if they would just tell YAHU what they think TO HIS FACE, maybe Palestinians might stand a chance.
good news, this
timely “accident”?
whatever the “mixup”
the forbidden and heretofore censored message has gotten out
that our own president together with the french president can’t stand israeli pm binyamin netanayahu
the liar who congress gave a standing ovation?
unforgiveable, if one happens to be an israel-firster?
absololutely
the president might as well fold up his tent, drop out of next year’s election?
unless, of course, following up on today’s revelation, he speaks to the american people about what’s really going on in the mideast
he must know the truth, if only from the time he spent with reverend jeremiah wright
that from its inception the zionist entity israel has been nothing but a colonial enterprise
the palestinians the oppressed, the jewish settlers the oppressor
as in america ever since plymouth rock & still counting
the settlers always screwing over the natives, how many peoples to extinction?
meaning that president obama comes out for justice in palestine (or at the minimum, even-handedness) and he’ll win the election?
+ taking on wall street & the, banksters, as per the occupy everywhere movement
and the american people?
ready, willing & able
Remember when this one got out:
“Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”
–Ariel Sharon, responding to his foreign minister Shimon Peres after Peres warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and “turn the US against us,” broadcast by Israel Radio on October 3, 2001…The radio said Peres and other cabinet ministers warned Sharon against saying what he said in public because “it would cause us a public relations disaster.”
thank you sir for posting this gem. have a link? it’s even better than Netanyahugate
link to mondoweiss.net
Netanyahu: Especially today, with America. I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right correction.
I read somewhere that this Sharon quote was actually fabricated… cannot find sources now.
I read that once, too. I cannot find the sources either BUT if memory serves it was still something similar to what he said. The original was in Hebrew and the English isnt a 100% accurate translation. The message was similar though
Sarkozy, I have now forgiven you all your previous sins; bless you for telling the truth to the POTUS!
The catch with this gem is that we don’t know what Obama was up to. We do know that he says what he thinks his audience wants to hear. Was he just trying to ingratiate himself with Sarkozy? Or was Obama expressing his dislike to the Israeli war criminal? When Obama meets with the war criminal, will he make some disparaging remark about Sarkozy?
Obama is a perfect coward. Or at best, a particularly vile opportunist.
Leaders and the followers create the image not the other way ,…
Mondoweiss is an intelligent source of information. Obama has no free will. Each and every position is coerc3ed into him before he accepts it. News of Obama making such a statement about Netanyahu takes off a lot of heat. Sounds more like a Carl Rove moment.
Sounds more like a counterop against Bibi. STFU sort of thing.
France isn’t going to support an attack on Iran.
At least I bet Rove would like to claim it to his friends.
This is reported by both BBC and Guardian now, so I guess the journalists’ vow of silence did not last long.
Oh please. A vow of silence among journalists when it comes to unpopular politicians lasts only slightly long then a vow of chastity in Congress.
Or the vow of ‘never again’.
Not quite the same thing…which is true?
link to haaretz.com
Then again, possibly one of those ‘purposeful’ leaks.
This CBS article calls it Netanyahu bashing. One step short of Jew Bashing.
“The initial topic of discussion which led Sarkozy and Mr. Obama to their apparent Netanyahu-bashing was France’s support of the Palestinian’s bid for membership in the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO. ”
link to cbsnews.com
Why jew bashing?
If we work on the image of Berlusconi we do not do “catholic bashing”.
With Assad we do not do “islam bashing”!
Why is that every time an israeli politician is criticised it become an anti-semitic comment or as Chu says: “jew bashing?
Nini is an idiot who happens to be a jew. There are more of them, some of them in Washington.
It’s is Jew-bashing (if it is at all) because Israel and its supporters have DECIDED (and by vast PR MADE) anti-Zionism out to be anti-Semitism (which, as we all know, used to mean Jew-bashing and occasionally still does, when it serves the interests of the Zionists to have it so).
Otherwise, as any sensible person knows, anti-Zionism or even mere criticism of Israel is just that — and has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. [Possibly the extreme form of anti-Zionism which denies the Jews the right to a country of their own AT ALL in Palestine might, just might, squeeze by as anti-Semitism.]
not even “just might squeeze by as antisemitism”, any more than being opposed to jim grow equated with being anti-caucasian
CBS is seems to use language that insinuates criticism of Netanyahu (yahoo bashing) is near to ‘Jew’ bashing. The senior editor penned that piece and he’s chosen a poor choice of words that seems to imply that yahoo is some sort of victim (?). That was my point, or it was just bad humor on Tucker Reals behalf.
Israel has an army to stop Jew bashing. Most of the Jew bashing is done by fellow Jews. So the army is useless.
I hope everyone realizes that this event was staged. Notice 1) that Obama did not actually say anything really that negative about Netanyahu, 2) that this occurred in the context of a previous statement in which Obama complained about France voting Yes to Palestinian membership in UNESCO– the Lobby was supposed to note this part of the exchange, 3) the whole exchange personalizes things. It allows Obama and Sarkozy to both make clear that their problem is a personal one with Netanyahu, not Israel per se.
The whole thing was a staged and planned leak…
If it was…yea
The whole thing was a staged and planned leak…
far out. i hope more ‘staging’ is in the works…this is the kind of diplomacy that really turns me on.
these comments were just mentioned on the BBC world service
“According to the report, Obama replied: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”
This sure would contradict what Victoria Nuland said to AP Matt Lee the other day when they had the exchange about how often the Obama administration communicates with Israeli officials
Repeated again on BBC in the second hour of world service
This backdoor banter isn’t particularly uplifting.
The Palestinians did the best thing- do good- make demonstrations, go to the UN. positive peaceful uplifting steps. But it is hard. Gandhi said you would have to be willing to get martyred and that it is not for everyone.
The Jewish people longed to return for centuries. And the Palestinian refugees also longed to return. The return of the refugees is beauty like the ancient Israelites’ move to freedom in the Promised land. They tried making an “Exodus” to their homeland on Nakba day this year and about 14 of them were shot trying to cross back into their homeland.
The acquisition to UNESCO was another positive, uplifting step, because UNESCO is about beauty and art, and the Palestinians, like with the Church of the Nativity, also have beauty.
Finkelstein proposed- “Hey, everybody get the UN resolution in your hand, walk across the border. And maybe they will kill some people, but maybe after 100, the world will wake up and make people return.” I think Finkelstein was right. But at the same time it is very challenging. In fact, I doubt that if it was me I would be as brave as the many people who tried to peacefully march across the border this Nakba day.
Thanks for this W. Jones. Very moving.
You’re right, we should not forget the brave 14 who died trying to make “an “Exodus” to their homeland on Nakba day this year.”
a people united and willing to die for the return of their homeland cannot be defeated short of genocide, but today’s world, will it allow genocide of six million palestinians? certainly not the arab/islamic world.