Israel Army Radio System | 11 November 2009
Google Translation (Edited)

Why Americans hid the Netanyahu-Obama meeting?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves the White House after a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh - AP)

Netanyahu’s office was surprised by the American demand to conceal his meeting yesterday with President Obama in Washington. Looking back on their two previous meetings, it seems that Netanyahu was running to the media before common understandings were reached, and this time the White House decided, apparently, to pre-empt this.

Since his election as the President of the United States, Barack Obama has met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu three times. Twice, even before the ink had fully dried, Netanyahu rushed to brag about his victories over the American administration. The third time, a little more than a day before the meeting, he received an explicit request from the government in Washington to be silent.

In the middle of the month of May, for the first time in his second term, Netanyahu flew to Washington. Although the White House revealed deep divisions on a series of issues between the Obama administration, the prime minister insisted on announcing his important achievements in the Oval Office on the microphones [of the press] .

A month and a half ago, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York and after countless adjustments, Netanyahu, Abu Mazen, and Obama, all three, met for the first time. The Prime Minister again announed prematurely that agreement had been reached to start negotiations without preconditions — i.e. with no Israeli commitment to stop building settlements. Even before his entourage celebrated, newspaper headlines in the country screamed: “Obama folds” [as in a game of cards].

Netanyahu used even the flash visit of American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who came to Israel just two weeks ago, to continue and strengthen his position and hurt, says the United States, the stability of Abu Mazen. After meeting with Clinton, he ran and told the Cabinet: “The Americans are with us.” After the meeting last week, as stated, Netanyahu held no press briefing, and just settled for a brief statement. Having undermined the status of Abu Mazen, in the wake of his message that he is not running in the next election in the Authority, the clear message from Uncle Sam, probably influenced him.

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The delays in finding a time to meet, and pushing it to a late hour – after the news programs on Israeli television – make Netanyahu look as if Obama threw him a bone. In such circumstances, it is no longer important what will be said at the meeting, and the extent to which there will be an attempt to present it as an achievement. The prime minister of Israel was humiliated before all.

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The feeling in Washington is that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been trying to maneuver the US administration over the past few weeks, and we cannot accept that, an unnamed US diplomat told Army Radio on Wednesday morning, in what may have constituted an explanation to the blackout imposed on the details of the Monday night 100-minute meeting between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.
The official went on to cite Netanyahu’s conduct in press briefings, presumably those following meetings with Obama and other high ranking White House officials in the past, as evidence of the prime minister’s attempt to sway public opinion.
According to the report, the US diplomat also mentioned the prime minister’s apparent efforts to pressure the US administration through Washington lobbying.
The White House’s conduct over the past few days, he reportedly said, was an attempt to set things straight.

An Obama-Netanyahu meeting, with preconditions