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Obama vs. Netanyahu: Tale of the Tape

This afternoon’s joint White House appearance between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a pretty low-key affair, as predicted.

Jul 31, 202022K Shares882.6K Views
This afternoon’s joint White House appearance between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a pretty low-key affair, as predicted. Hard disagreements got sanded down, platitude-level pleasantries got played up, and a placid time was had by all. Netanyahu can return home tomorrow night justifiably happy that Obama didn’t rebuke him in any public way. Disagreements were pretty subtle — but they were in evidence. Let’s tally them up from the transcript.
Explicit references from Obama to a Palestinian state or a two-state solution: Two.
Explicit references from Obama to George Mitchell, his peacenik envoy to the Middle East whom certain right-wing alleged friends of Israel think is too “fair-minded”: Two.
Preferred locution for the endpoint of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Netanyahu that doesn’t include any reference to Palestinian statehood: “A substantive solution that allows the two people to live side by side in security and peace.” Repeated twice.
Netanyahu’s description of the Iranian threat to Israel: “The worst danger we face is that Iran would develop nuclear military capabilities.”
Obama’s response, from a policy perspective: “Iran can achieve its interests of security and international respect and prosperity for its people through other means, and I am prepared to make what I believe will be a persuasive argument, that there should be a different course to be taken.”
Explicit references from Obama to the 2007 Annapolis peace process and/or the roadmap as binding commitments, which Netanyahu has disputed: Two, including three uses of the word “obligations.”
Hajra Shannon

Hajra Shannon

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