Israel Matzav

It starts: Obama rebuffed three times this week

Prime Minister Netanyahu wasn't the only ally to rebuff President Obama this week. Ben Smith reports that Iraqi Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader and close American ally, and South Korea also snubbed Obama this week.

Eli Lake reports today that President Obama called Iraqi Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader and close American ally, and asked him to give up his seat in the interest of a the power-sharing deal the U.S. prefers. Talabani, Lake reports, "rebuffed" Obama, and the piece includes a jab at the White House from Talabani's son.

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Obama also suffered another public rebuff today with the failure to get a trade deal on his trip to South Korea, the third time -- following the failures to get the Olympics and to get much out of Copenhagen -- a high-profile trip hasn't quite concluded as planned.

These allies' willingness to snub Obama may reflect the perception -- among leaders whose habit is to obsess over, and over-read, American politics -- that the American president is on his heels, and among the White House's challenges in the coming months is to remind foreign leaders that Obama's still fully in control of a foreign policy that was hardly mentioned during the election and is not, in fact, expected to change as a result of Republican control of the House.

Unless, of course, he's not fully in control, because he can't back up anything he says. If that sounds like a good thing to most Israelis it may not be. If we can snub him, so can Iran and Syria. Of course, Iran and Syria been snubbing him for the last two years anyway.

Labels: Barack Obama, domestic weakness, foreign policy

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:07 AM