MJ Rosenberg has a genius post about Israeli President Shimon Peres sending his New Year's greeting to Iran right on the heels of Obama's greeting to Iran.
I hear that the White House is furious.
Today's Times reports that when asked about the Israeli move, Press
Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "I know we notified our allies about our
message last evening," saying he did not know if the Israelis had been
notified.
Of course, they were. No other ally is as concerned about Iran as
Israel so Jerusalem must have been at the top of the list of those
notified.
Did it respond with a hasty and insulting message in order to kill
the effect of President Obama's? If so, it was a serious breach. If
the shoe was on the other foot, Jerusalem would go ballistic.
know what happened. If it was an innocent coincidence, fine. If it
wasn't, it bodes ill for any US attempt to mend relations with Iran
Ilene Cohen makes a similar point about the gestures:
article online entitled, "Obama and Israeli Leader Make Taped Appeals
to Iran," which is mostly about President Obama's truly groundbreaking
message to the people and government of Iran. No threats. No nuclear
talk. No regime change talk. Peres of Israel, by contrast, issued
greetings to the people of Iran in a typically cheesy Israeli
production urging them to think twice about Ahmadinejad; the smallness
screams out. I found it offensive to see the two sets of greetings
packaged together by the Times, since other than that both were
"messages" to Iran, they have nothing else in common. Mr. Peres, you
are no Barack Obama.
And here's another Jewish writer echoing that point to me:
This is amazing. The President of the United States offers an olive branch
but the Times couples it with bullshit from the twobit President of a
pissant country. Also, is it a coincidence that Peres issued this
today? Or is his intent to make it look like a coordinated good
cop/bad cop act.
