This takes some deciphering:
Hefez said that Netanyahu had reached a "list of understandings" on policy toward Palestinians with U.S. President Barack Obama in their talks in Washington.And then:
Spokesman Mark Regev said that when Hefez said understandings had been reached, he was "articulating the Israeli position, he is not articulating a joint position".Yeah, well, let's schlep out the confusion sign:
P.S. The mere fact of Bibi reaching understanding with Bibi is also encouraging enough: so far it didn't happen.
8 comments:
Hmm. Mocking Netanyahu for his inability to reach an understanding with Obama is like mocking a bettafish for failing to reach an understanding with a housecat. I know the impossible odds because in my family we have been trying to get these two to understand one another for a year now. And nothing doing. The cat still behaves as if she owns our family and the fish swims in his tiny water container trying to make sense of who that huge face it is that keeps peering at it from above. What are the face's intentions? Why do I even merit so much attention? Why does that face look in the direction of my shell, where I like to go sleep at night? What is it about that shell that is so detrimental to the cat's interests?
"Guest" is Noga, of course.
Hmm... I rather liked the cat/fish parable, but I was mocking Bibi for two other reasons:
1. For his inability to reign in his own staff and prevent them from looking and sounding ridiculous.
2. For being Bibi generally, which is a bad predicament in any case.
Yep. The reports I've seen said the only understanding they came to was that Bibi was not backing down and Obambi was not taking no for an answer. Not yet, anyhow. In addition to being a wellknown prevaricator, he's also a reliable backtracker.
Glad to hear that Bibi is at least now in agreement with himself if no one else. Hopefully he can build on this accomplishment to reach agreement with others.
Seriously, apparently his meeting with Obama, where allegedly he tried to show by flowchart(!) why the decision on the East Jerusalem housing was not his, went about as well as his meeting with Clinton in 1996 that resulted in Clinton declaring, according to his Mid-East negotiator, Dennis Ross: "Who the f--- does he (Bibi) think he is? Who's the f---ing superpower here?" In another words, Bibi is still the same insuferable disaster that he has always been. For some more detail go to http://hurryupharry.org/2010/03/25/what-petraeus-really-said-about-israel and check through the comments.
Fortunately key US-Israeli defense ties are still strong. In part, due to continued good ties between Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the most sane senior member of the govt. and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "Despite U.S. anger over settlements, defense ties are flourishing" at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1159293.html
(hat tip to Gene at Hurry Up Harry for link)
Worst thing for Israel and Bibi would be to think they can get defy Obama. Congress and the American people may be overwhelming pro-Israel, but that does not mean blind support for whatever an Israeli govt does particularly concerning the West Bank and East Jerusalem. No US govt. in the more than forty years since the Six Day War has recognized Israeli control of East Jerusalem. One way or the other the Israeli govt. has got to come to agreement with the Obama Administration. Idea of relying on a more favorable adminstration being elected in 2012 is sheer folly.
That's true. Bibi doesn't have a lot of chances to prolong his coalition beyond this year.
Politically, Netanyahu comes across as rather inept, for a Prime Minister.
He might not be able to control external circumstances, but Netanyahu's inability to keep track of developments in Israel, see how they reflect in the wider world and respond as a competent Prime Minister would, is rather telling.
He isn't even able to lie successfully, which is a bad drawback for a politico.
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