Israel Matzav

Bibi owned Obama

Say what you will about Friday's joint press availability with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Hussein Obama, this much is clear: Bibi owned Obama. Rush Limbaugh wishes Bibi could run for President of the United States, and urges potential Republican candidates to watch and listen.

Benjamin Netanyahu: "We cannot negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas. Hamas just attacked you, Mr. President, for getting rid of Bin Laden." Netanyahu is saying this to our young man-child president. We can't go back to the '67 borders. So you strip everything else away here, folks, and it's obvious to me who's coming off as the more serious man in that room. And I gotta tell you, I can't wait to see what the media does with Netanyahu. I can't wait to see how the media characterizes this. Will they say he showed profound disrespect, that these comments should have never been made in public. It would be fine to share these sentiments with President Obama in a private meeting, but to go public like this and to slap the president.

Maybe they don't look at it that way. Maybe they don't look at the president being slapped down here. Maybe it isn't the president. I gotta give myself a wide berth here because right now I'm visual only and reading closed-captioning. So it appears to me that what Netanyahu is saying is, essentially, "Look, that stuff you said yesterday, we really appreciate how you feel. We can't do any of it." Is that how it's coming across? It says we're not gonna do anything. We can't. Now he's talking about the Palestinian refugees. He is not gonna accept them. He said that's not gonna happen. And everybody knows it's not gonna happen.

I have to be right. Look at Obama. Look at Obama. He's sitting there as though Bibi is Paul Ryan at the health care -- oh-ho, folks. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, mama! Cool this is. Cool this is. We're rolling tape on it, and we'll have audio of this as soon as we can assemble it and put it together for you. Obama hasn't said a word in four minutes now. He's sitting there with his hand on his chin and it's covering his mouth, and you can't tell if he's smiling. Netanyahu has not stopped talking. He's looking alternately at Obama and then at the cameras. The US and Israel, they have differences here and there. So can't go back to the '67 borders. They don't take into account the changes that have taken place on the ground. Israel cannot negotiate with the Palestinian government backed by Hamas. Hamas just attacked you, Mr. President, for getting rid of Bin Laden. He said that.

Hamas is a terrorist organization. We are not gonna negotiate with a terrorist organization. A terrorist organization just attacked you, Mr. President, and of course, unstated here is that yesterday you, Mr. President, aligned yourself with Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. Obama has his hand up like Hillary had her hand in the Situation Room photo during the Bin Laden raid. You know, when Hillary had her hand over her mouth with that wide look on her eyes (gasping), but Obama does not have that expression. Netanyahu says that the Palestinian leaders are going to have to choose between a pact with Hamas or peace with Israel. Whoa! This is the gauntlet!

Folks, the gauntlet's being thrown down here. Can Bibi run for the Republican nomination? Would you people in Indiana support Bibi? I'm just teasing, of course. Obama's not gonna say anything. They ended this thing without Obama saying anything. They cut out of it. Obama did not say a word. The thing just ended. The last word was Netanyahu. The only word was Netanyahu. Well, Obama opened it up. Okay. So now, folks, I don't think there's any question that Obama's mad.

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And I'm looking at this today, and I'm asking myself, "Why did Obama allow this to happen?" Obama just allowed himself to get slapped on national TV in front of the world. Now, Bibi was respectful, don't misunderstand. That's what makes this even better. How could Obama, after talking to Bibi, not know what he was gonna say? You're president of the United States. Okay, you got this joint thing planned, but if you get wind that Netanyahu's gonna go out and say these kind of things, creating that facial reaction, that visual reaction on your part, you cancel it and you come up with some explanation. Whatever explanation the cancellation ends up being is not nearly as bad as what happened.

This looked like Obama had no control over the events, or else it looked like the same thing, he was so arrogant, he was so cock-certain that Netanyahu had to go along with whatever Obama proposed 'cause he's Obama, he's the first black president, he's the president of the world, everybody loves Obama, Bibi's gonna have to automatically cower. Maybe Bibi in their private meeting didn't say these things, maybe it's a total sandbag, I don't know, but you're president of the United States, and you don't allow yourself to get sandbagged this way. And he did. Obama did. I'm stunned at this. Where's the staff? Even if Obama's too young and idealistic and impressed with himself, where's an adult around here warning, "You know, Mr. President, you don't want this to happen."

I'll be eager for you people to see this later on today, if you haven't yet when you get yourself near a television. When you see Netanyahu and Obama you'll see a true leader, and you'll see a lightweight in direct side by side contrast, a true leader and a lightweight. You know, Netanyahu said, "Israel is my responsibility." He didn't say it's not yours to Obama, but the implication was clear. Now, the meeting prior to this presser, this little joint presser they have here -- it wasn't a presser; the appearance -- meeting went on more than an hour than was scheduled, so I would assume that Netanyahu had a lot of things to say to Obama.

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NETANYAHU: The third reality is that the Palestinian refugee problem will have to be resolved in the context of a Palestinian state, but certainly not in the borders of Israel. The Arab attack in 1948 on Israel resulted in two refugee problems: A Palestinian refugee problem and Jewish refugees in roughly the same number, who were expelled from Arab lands. Now, tiny Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees, but the vast Arab world refused to absorb the Palestinian refugees. Now 63 years later, the Palestinians come to us, and they say to Israel, "Accept the grandchildren, really, and the great-grandchildren of these refugees; thereby wiping out Israel's future as a Jewish state." So it's not gonna happen, everybody knows it's not gonna happen, and I think it's time to tell the Palestinians forthrightly: It's not gonna happen.

RUSH: This is unprecedented? (laughing) This is unprecedented! Gosh, folks, I can't tell you! This is orgasmic. So simply stated: "It's not going to happen. It just isn't gonna happen and everybody knows it's not gonna happen." He just said, in effect, "Your speech yesterday was just a bunch of worthless words. Your speech yesterday was just a bunch of pap. You know this isn't gonna happen; everybody knows this isn't gonna happen. It would be the end of the Jewish state if we had the grandchildren of these refugees flowing into our country." It's not gonna happen, just isn't gonna happen." By the way, Netanyahu also went to Harvard and MIT, and I'm telling you: In his life he's done more in five minutes than Obama has done in his whole career.

Read the whole thing.

Jeffrey Goldberg agreed that Netanyahu owned the President, but he's insulted by it.

So Netanyahu "expects" to hear this from the President of the United States? And if President Obama doesn't walk back the speech, what will Netanyahu do? Will he cut off Israeli military aid to the U.S.? Will he cease to fight for the U.S. in the United Nations, and in the many international forums that treat Israel as a pariah?

I don't like this word, "expect." Even if there weren't an imbalance between these two countries -- Israel depends on the U.S. for its survival, while America, I imagine, would continue to exist even if Israel ceased to exist -- I would find myself feeling resentful about the way Netanyahu speaks about our President. Netanyahu had an alternative, of course: He could have said, as he got on the plane to Washington, where today -- awkward! -- he will be meeting with President Obama: "The President today delivered a very fine speech. His condemnation of Hamas and Iran, his question about whether the Palestinians actually seek peace; his strong language against Syria; his recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; his re-assertion of the unshakeable bond between our two nations -- all of this and more brought joy to my heart. There are a couple of points in the speech, having to do with borders and refugees, that I would like to clarify with the President when I see him, and I'm looking forward to a constructive dialogue on these few issues."

Of course, he didn't say this. Instead he threw something of a hissy fit. It was not appropriate, and more to the point, it was not tactically wise: If I'm waking up this morning feeling that the Israeli prime minister is disrespecting the President of my country, imagine how other Americans might be feeling. And, then, of course, there's this: Prime Minister Netanyahu needs the support of President Obama in order to confront the greatest danger Israel has ever faced: the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran. And yet he seems to go out of his way to alienate the President. Why does he do this? It's a mystery to me.

Read the whole thing.

I'm with Limbaugh more than Goldberg on this one, as you might imagine. But the problem with Bibi is that he talks a great show - and then he caves anyway. Will it happen again?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rush Limbaugh

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:49 AM