Israel Matzav

Obama meets with Ehud Barak

For the record, the picture is not from Monday night - it's from President Obama's visit to Israel as a candidate on July 23, 2008. I don't know whether pictures were taken of them on Monday. I do know that none were taken when Barak visited the White House with Prime Minister Netanyahu on March 23.

President Obama walked into a meeting at the White House on Monday between Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak and US National Security Adviser James Jones. Barak and Obama have more in common than a name. Each of them is admired personally in their country, but no one wants to vote for them any more.

President Barack Obama assured a top Israeli official Monday that the U.S. has an unshakable commitment to Israel's security despite recent tension over Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was at the White House for a meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones. Gibbs says Obama told Barak he is determined to achieve comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

Obama's comments come as the Israeli government said it had effectively frozen construction of settlements in disputed East Jerusalem. U.S. officials had no immediate comment on that announcement.

That's funny. I don't recall the government actually making an announcement like that.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley wouldn't discuss what Israel was telling the United States about Jewish construction.

"We have asked both sides to take steps to rebuild trust and to create momentum so that we can see advances in" peace talks, Crowley told reporters. "We're not going to go into details about what we've asked them to do, but obviously this is an important issue in the atmosphere to see the advancement of peace."

Obama's presence at the meeting is part of his effort at damage control over his relationship with the Jewish community. No one should be sucked in by it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:41 AM