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).
