"Obama 'humiliated' Netanyahu at meeting" - JASON KOUTSOUKIS

 "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.''

''Obama wants to know whether Netanyahu is there. In explicit words, in writing, not with hints, not with a 'maybe,' not with a 'yes, but'. A simple question that requires a simple answer.''"  SMH

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I had resolved not to write about this for a while, but this is SO interesting...  Evidently BHO gave Bibi his letter of response back and told him to go work on it for a while.  Then, as it says here, he announced that he was going upstairs to have dinner with his family and left Natanyahu to figuratively "find the door."

Caspit writes that the whole world expects a settlement based on the 1967 borders...  Imagine that!!

"Now we are completely alone"  Sigh, well, they are alone except for several billion dollars of US money every year.

Sounds like a display of collective neurotic narcissism to me, but "alnval" or Natalie can explain it to us.  pl 

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

Comments

[Paul]

Contrary to the pundits, Obama ain't no wimp!

[curious]

Israel problem is so last week. (just kidding, but the tangle is not unraveling at all)

South Korea just lost a corvette near NK border.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/rok/pohang.htm

ok. any expert out there?

my question: mine or torpedo? Seems kinda sink too fast for accident. (If it is accident they would have explained it by now since they have so many rescue ship immediately swarming around. On top of that the leadership immediately run into the bunker. So they expect big shoot out, in line with escalating rhetoric in the last few days)

If It is mine, how advance is this corvette? Is this new mine class?

If it is torpedo, (I hope not) what will happen next?

Any movement of big ship in the area? (russia just did anti sub exercise off the coast of japan few days back)

-----

Oh Hamas vs. IDF just clashed. This is going to be a long summer for sure.

At least the Russian will show their new T-95 tank.

[Ken Roberts]

Fascinating. I cut down a small tree last weekend, had a lot of trouble because my good chain saw had a broken starter, and the old chain saw is pretty wimpy. So left the 4-foot stump for later.

Couple of days ago got the part for my good chain saw, and cut the stump into 4 slices. It turns out to be hollow, with a perfectly empty core. Something to show the grandkids. Couldn't have told it from the outside.

[david]

The Rahm-Bibi slug-fest continues.

I will hazard that Rahm, buoyed by the passage of health care reform (possibly due in part to his strategy of abandoning the public option), told Obama not to believe a word Bibi says.

Much is made of Rahm's connections to the state of Israel, but I cannot think of a recent WH CoS that would tell an American president such about an Israeli PM (and in the audience of others, no doubt).

A word of caution, though. The Israelis become positively Lebanese when it comes to these WH meetings, reading Machivellian plots into the smallest ritual details. I am sure no account will be entirely accurate.

I score the round for Rahm, but Netanyahu is not done.

[LeaNder]

Concerning your comments problems. I had problems via Firefox lately. When I try to post, I get this message:
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We are sorry, we cannot accept this data.
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When I shift over here it mostly works. Let's see.

''The US is abandoning us and effectively turning into Europe,'' Caspit wrote.

Imagine, to an anti-semitic Europe overrun by Muslim hordes. And isn't among all the nations one love enough for the US?

Concerning the last article:
As during his last visit in November, Netanyahu was invited to the White House at a late hour, without media coverage or a press conference.

I am very, very pleased, that way they give media no chance to frame the story via photos or words. The first encounter with Bibi apparently was reflected deeply. I still vividly remember the NYT photo: Bibi talks, Obama listens.

[LeaNder]

over here means: Internet Explorer

[WILL]

"Then, as it says here, he announced that he was going upstairs to have dinner with his family and left Natanyahu to figuratively "find the door.""

this is what i read from the OZ paper
''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.''

THEN after O'bama came back from dinner, what BIBI came up with was unacceptable.

Then the House minority leader, the guy with the Armageddon perspective on the Health Care bill leaked his version of the Bibib O'bama meeting. What a traitor!

[ExBrit]

Here's your hat. What's your hurry?

I can only hope this is the message that thug took away with him! I'm not so sure.

[The beaver]

So I guess only white democracies are allowed to be "honoured" by the WH. If one comes from the Black "Third World" country, one has to go through the back door, as per the pro-Likud Israeli rags. Racism in the only Democratic nation of the M.E. Mon oeil.......

[WILL]

Marc Lynch, aka abu ardvark, at foreignpolicy.com speculates that Obama may be playing the "long game" on the Middle East. Just like he did on health care. That indeed he very well may know what he is doing. What is it he once said, that he was like NBA player James LeBron, that he could play in the big leagues.

"Obama's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is less explicitly constructed along the health care reform/Iran model, but there are still similarities. Obama laid out a grand vision of a two-state solution which would finally deal with an intractable issue which most reasonable people have long agreed needed to be resolved for moral and strategic reasons. Many people warned that he was over-reaching. Others were frustrated that he seemed to be playing too passive a role, leaving a floundering process to his deputies (George Mitchell, Congressional Democrats). Some complained that he was going way too far, others that he wasn't going nearly far enough. The optimistic, "long game" view would be that the Obama administration has patiently suffered Netanyahu's provocations in order to allow the Israeli government to reveal itself as outside the mainstream and unreasonable, and win over mainstream support for the American vision. When the theatrics are over, hard-ball politics will commence, Obama will engage personally at the closing stages, and a realistic final status agreement will be reached which doesn't satisfy the purists on either side but which represents a major accomplishment far beyond what had been previously expected. "

[Clifford Kiracofe]

Can any SST reader give us a sense of the political situation in Israel?

Thomas on another thread raised the issue of destabilizing the Bibi government so as to shatter his coalition and bring new faces into the picture.

So in the current Knesset, how many votes are "pro-settler" and precisely who are the Knesset members in the present one who have been identified as pro-settler?

If Bibi goes, what would the next government look like and again how much "pro-settler" influence would be on it?

While we are concerned about our own Congress, we need to have a precise assessment of the enemy and its forces...at least this would seem logical so as to have a coherent analysis and discussion.

Wiki per Knesset: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knesset

[91B]

He who pays the piper gets to call the tunes.

Bibi should do the manly thing and refuse any more D.C. money.

As soon as ANYONE accepts money from the feds, they own you. He needs to get used to it.

No free lunches here, son.

[par4]

Sounds like inflammatory yellow journalism designed to rile up a political base. I'm sure glad we don't have that here in the good old US of A.

[alnval]

Col. Lang:

Neurotic Narcissism?

How about just an overblown sense of self-importance? I don’t think that’s a diagnosis so much as something that gets you in a hell of a lot of trouble on the playground!

[William R. Cumming]

Curious? How independent is the Jeruselum Post of the government?r

[ked]

Some credit might also be due for the Sec State Clinton (who seems to be accomplishing more good for the USA than had she become President) & NS Advisor Gen Jones.

The quiet carrot & stick activity w/ Israel is military assistance... particularly the long-sought PAC3. I'd imagine IDF is anxious to get their hands on it, especially now that their alternative sources to US technology are not quite as easy as before.

I thought Obama would at worst be an average Pres in hard times, at best a great one. Somehow, I don't think he'll be revealed as an all-time-great, but it doesn't look like he's going to fall apart either. Maybe it IS time for younger, less cynical & dogmatic leaders - across the board.

[curious]

I shouldn't be surprised about this. But somebody really need to put Bibi in a cage stat. UN resolution NOW!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8590362.stm

Israeli tanks 'enter Gaza' after deadly clashes

Reports say at least two Palestinians have also been killed.

Israel says the fighting started when its troops crossed into Gaza after spotting militants planting explosives along the border.

Reports from inside Gaza say the militants then tried to capture an Israeli soldier.

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The NK situation is murky. But the idiot in charge in there definitely taking their time. If this is nuclear war, everybody would have been radioactive by now. (PS. SK has near ZERO air defense against short range ballistic missile. so, I consider them a dumbass clown, or seriously looking for trouble not explaining to the world what happen to their ship)

http://snafu-solomon.blogspot.com/2010/03/corvette-sunk.html

D. E. Reddick said...

I've been following a thread concerning this incident on MP.net and an ex-SWO made a very pertinent point regarding what may have happened. The corvette which has sunk is an ASW variant of the Pohang class. Instead of carrying missiles it is fitted with torpedoes and depth charges. There are two d.c. racks mounted on the stern of these ASW corvettes, with each rack containing six d.c.s. If there was an accidental explosion by a single d.c., then with rest of the d.c.s going off would have destroyed the stern of the vessel and likely cause its sinking. Or, a wake-following torpedo could cause the same effect (even enhanced by those twelve d.c.s).

[The beaver]

I believe that the Israelis are spreading false rumours. Michele, the girls and grand-ma were in NYC on Tuesday (they have been visiting for a few days btw)

[N.Z.]

Colonel P.L., you concluded by saying: "Sounds like a display of collective neurotic narcissism to me".

I came across an article that summarizes what is happening in America, written by Paul Craig Roberts, he was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. His conclusion was that words are no longer mightier than sword because..and here is his conclusion .I think his words summarize the situation that is taking over America by those you called narcotic narcissisms.

..."The American media does not serve the truth. It serves the government and the interest groups that empower the government.

America’s fate was sealed when the public and the anti-war movement bought the government’s 9/11 conspiracy theory. The government’s account of 9/11 is contradicted by much evidence. Nevertheless, this defining event of our time, which has launched the US on interminable wars of aggression and a domestic police state, is a taboo topic for investigation in the media. It is pointless to complain of war and a police state when one accepts the premise upon which they are based.

These trillion dollar wars have created financing problems for Washington’s deficits and threaten the U.S. dollar’s role as world reserve currency. The wars and the pressure that the budget deficits put on the dollar’s value have put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. Former Goldman Sachs chairman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is after these protections for the elderly. Fed chairman Bernanke is also after them. The Republicans are after them as well. These protections are called "entitlements" as if they are some sort of welfare that people have not paid for in payroll taxes all their working lives.

With over 21 percent unemployment as measured by the methodology of 1980, with American jobs, GDP, and technology having been given to China and India, with war being Washington’s greatest commitment, with the dollar over-burdened with debt, with civil liberty sacrificed to the "war on terror," the liberty and prosperity of the American people have been thrown into the trash bin of history.

The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished,

[Patrick Lang]

beaver

That's too bad I liked the story. pl

[The beaver]

Col

Their itinerary:
http://www.zimbio.com/Michelle+Obama/articles/ABm__J74wEJ/First+Lady+Michelle+Obama+First+Daughters

I guess the Ministry of (dis)information is pretty active- Megaphone is working well

[ISL]

david:

A close look at what the president is taking claims for "shepherding" through is a plan which gives tax-payer guaranteed bigger profits and more customers to the health care industry, guarantees health insurance but not coverage (the right to deny remains), does nothing to add effective competition, and will force people who are not poor to pay more than they have for coverage that will deny them care or pay a fine enforced by the government. On the banks, Obama has given the store away and asked for nothing.

One could go on, but my contention is that if one is looking for a pattern in the domestic legislation to understand the recent policy changes re: Israel, I just dont see it. I think this is coming from a different philosophy.

PS My first paragraph explains why Rahm is so happy with himself.

[Clifford Kiracofe]

"Ive been following Jerusalem Post and Haaretz this last year, and there is a marked shift in tone, from glum superiority to near hysteria. I think young Obama has them rattled, and he seems to have the firm backing of the military."

Fnord,

Could you expand on your comment per the shift in the Israeli press? This is most interesting.

My brother, who had been in Jordan, was in Jerusalem just after Obama was elected. He said Israelis would come up to him in the street and ask if he were an American. Then they would ask about his attitude toward Obama.

My brother would reply that he voted for Obama and was a strong supporter. To which the random street Israelis would launch a riff to the effect that he was "an Arab" "a Muslim" and a "n------".

This contrasted with my brother's experience in Iran on Election Day. People in Isfahan would come up to him and ask if he was an American. He would say yes and then they would say how happy they were that Obama won.

WRC.

The Jerusalem Post was owned by Anglo-Zionist interests. Conrad Black, before he crashed and burned, I believe controlled the paper. He sold his Canadian interests to the Asper family, who are Canadian Zionists and control a large segment of the media there. I do not recall if the Jerusalem Post came with the package. Perhaps a Canadian SST reader might know.

In passing, I would note that it would appear that most of the North American "news" media (US and Canadian) is owned and controlled by "pro-Israel" Zionist types....

[curious]

'mkay I never really pay attention to non electronic version of Israel press. And the electronic one, I read them as a whole instead of each presser. Jerusalem post to me seem like a reliable small hawkish newspaper, until I notice how "small" that newspaper is.

Circulation is 15,000 daily. w000t? An average medium blog would have bigger daily hit than that. Huffpo, is in range of 2million hit. dkos is 1.3-1.5m. NYtims site I think is 5 m-ish. 15,000 is a "campus" newspaper!

..., some silly blog I post for is bigger than that ... lol. (I feel like a media mogul for brief 2 nano second)

-----------

strangely enough, the paper supposedly started from Israel labour party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jerusalem_Post

Until 1989 the paper supported the forerunners of the Labour Party. In 1989, the paper was purchased by Hollinger Inc. A number of journalists resigned from the Post after Conrad Black's takeover and founded the Jerusalem Report, a weekly magazine eventually sold to the Post. The leader of the walkout was David Landau, who founded Haaretz English Edition and went on to become editor-in-chief of Haaretz until 2009.

On November 16, 2004, Hollinger sold the paper to Mirkaei Tikshoret Ltd., a Tel Aviv-based publisher of Israeli newspapers. CanWest Global Communications, Canada's biggest media concern, had announced an agreement to take a 50 percent stake in the Jerusalem Post after Mirkaei bought the property, but the deal soured. The two sides went to arbitration, and CanWest lost.

[Sidney O. Smith III]

In re: Zionists using the “n” word.

Professor Kiracofe:

Max Blumenthal produced a disturbing video called, “Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem”. It interviews young American Zionists on their trip to Jerusalem at approximately the same time as Obama made his Cairo speech.

The “n” word was used repeatedly. Yes, President Obama is referred to as a “n” and a “terrorist” and a “faggot” and a “Nazi”. It is an absolutely must see, as it is one of the more shocking videos to ever hit the world of online videos. It will change you. How can it not?

http://www.tu.tv/videos/feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem-on-eve-of

The video originally was posted at the website of the great one -- Phil Weiss. And if you’ll notice, the video is a result of Mondoweiss productions.

And credit Phil Weiss deserves, as well as other progressive American Jews who post at Mondoweiss (including Jack Ross, who apparently isn’t on the a-list with Weiss’ progressive tradition). Max Blumenthal of course deserves all the accolades possible, and one should never forget that American Jews are the ones who had the moral courage and just pure guts to produce and post, “Feeling the hate”.

After the great one posted the video, it disappeared off Youtube and has been all but impossible to find. But apparently the above referenced Hispanic website can carry it. Dios mios!

Here’s what is interesting, at least to me. I can assure you if the setting of this video was, say, in New Jersey, it would have made national news. If it were said in the South, a film would have been made about it, probably with progressive Zionists producing it and Susan Sarandon leading demonstrations. But alas, in Jerusalem.

Where is Representative John Lewis on all of this? All that Representative John Lewis has to do is show this video on the floor of Congress and…well…that’s all folks. And after Netanyahu’s show of arrogance towards President Obama, I certainly would not blame Representative Lewis for doing so.

As the ladies of the Virginia DAR may say, if you have class, you never use the “n” word.