Obama & Netanyahu's Closed Door Meeting
Last night Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with President Obama for a meeting at the White House. You'll just have to trust me on this because there is not even a picture of the event. The White House didn't allow any press in to cover the meeting, did not release an official photo or a readout themselves, and officials are remining tight-lipped about how things went. It's rather strange to have two leaders meet and have no photos or press briefings to show for it. For the record, by the way, the Israeli government didn't release a photo or a statement, either.
Obama and Netanyahu met in the Oval Office for 89 minutes. The meeting wrapped up at about 7:00pm, then Netanyahu remained at the White House meeting with staff and aides. The two leaders met again for 35 mimnutes at 8:20pm, apparently at Netanyahu's request.
Although Netanyahu did not appear publicly with President Obama, he was on display with leaders on Capitol Hill, joining top Democrats and Republicans. He met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton one-on-one at his hotel. And the other night, he had dinner at Vice President Joe Biden's residence, and they were photographed together there.
There WAS a readout after that dinner, here's a portion of it:
"They had a productive, candid discussion on the full range of issues in the bilateral relationship, in preparation for the meeting later today between the President and the Prime Minister."
The meetings came just 10 days after Israel announced new housing was being built in East Jerusalem, while Vice President Biden was on a trip in Israel. This week's visit was planned before the housing debate heated up.
You can feel the tension. In a speech Monday night Netanyahu said "Jerusalem is not a settlement, it's our capital."
At a press briefing earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was peppered with questions about the Obama/Bibi meeting, especially about the fact that there wasn't going to be any press coverage. Gibbs said, "...they're not frayed and that our bond with the Israelis is strong."
