Israel Matzav

Biden won't meet Lieberman; Netanyahu silent

Joe Biden will meet with everyone who's anyone while he's here. Binyamin Netanyahu. Ehud Barak. Tzipi Livni. Moshe Yaalon. Tony Blair. Avigdor Lieberman. That's right, the Gaffemeister has left Israel's Foreign Minister - who was last seen in Washington last June facing down US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - off his schedule.

Lieberman's office is trying to put the best face on it.

A spokesman for Lieberman said the two will not meet during the visit because a meeting between them has already been scheduled for April in Washington, during a planned Lieberman visit to the US. There was no reason to plan two meetings so close together, the spokesman said.

No comment was immediately available from the US embassy.

Sorry, but that just won't do. It's clear that the US doesn't like Lieberman, whom it views as a Right wing extremist. Sorry guys. He's our Foreign Minister. Netanyahu should stand up for him and tell Biden that he has to meet with Lieberman or else. Biden and Obama want this trip much more than Israel does because of that speech Biden is giving at Tel Aviv University on Thursday.

Can you imagine Ehud Olmert letting George Bush get away without meeting Tzipi Livni? (Olmert would have loved to do that, but Livni would have had his head). Can you imagine Yitzchak Rabin letting Bill Clinton get away without meeting Shimon Peres? It would never have happened. And it shouldn't happen to Lieberman either.

This is symptomatic of Netanyahu: He's letting the Americans dictate the agenda and exclude whomever they want to exclude. It's a recipe for disaster.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:54 PM