Silence that speaks volumes: blackout as Israel’s Netanyahu leaves White House

[MikeWB]

Silence that speaks volumes: blackout as Israel's leader leaves White House


(Gili Yaari/EPA)
An ultra-Orthodox boy looks at a poster showing President Obama receiving a medal from an unidentified Arab leader. The Hebrew on the poster reads: 'Warning! PLO agent in the White House!'
Giles Whittell, Washington

Two separate meetings between President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, failed today to produce so much as an official photograph as a deep chill settled over US-Israeli relations and secrecy shrouded any efforts to repair them.

The Israeli Prime Minister was due to fly home from Washington after three days marked by fierce Israeli defiance on the issue of settlements and an extraordinary silence maintained by both sides after his three-and-a-half hour visit to the White House.

The meeting was overshadowed by Israeli approval for 20 new apartments being built for Jews in Arab east Jerusalem — a move denounced by one senior US official as "exactly what we expect Prime Minister Netanyahu to get control of".

White House staff denied Mr Netanyahu the usual photo opportunities afforded a visiting leader, issued only the vaguest summary of their talks — let alone a joint statement — and reversed a decision to release an official photo of their meetings.

It was speculated that the talks may have moved beyond the quarrel over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem to "final status" issues such as the borders of a Palestinian state, as well as Iran and its nuclear programme. However, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, would say only that Mr Obama had asked Mr Netanyahu for confidence-building gestures and "clarification" of his position on settlements. He described the talks as "honest and straightforward".

Mr Obama also held telephone talks today with Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and President Sarkozy on Iran, the Middle East peace process and global economic issues, Mr Gibbs said.

In Jerusalem, the Government Press Office issued a terse statement saying the talks had been held in a "good atmosphere". They went on longer than expected, with the leaders meeting for 90 minutes, then again for half an hour after a long private discussion between Mr Netanyahu and his advisers in the White House Roosevelt Room.

The choreography of the evening suggested that the talks covered substantive proposals, possibly including an undertaking from Mr Netanyahu to prevent ill-timed announcements of new Israeli construction in the future. One such announcement wrecked Vice-President Joe Biden's latest trip to Jerusalem, an incident that was said to have left Mr Obama "livid".

Yet there is little doubt that Mr Netanyahu's stance on settlements has left him struggling to persuade a newly confident US President of his willingness to compromise for peace.

White House sources said observers were right to infer from the news blackout that relations between the two sides were not good, but later hinted that some Israeli proposals had been favourably received. Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been shelved since 2008 and the US is struggling to persuade them to restart even indirect "proximity talks".

Palestinian leaders have said they will not join any peace talks unless all Israeli construction east of the armistice line from the 1949 Arab-Israeli war is stopped. Before Tuesday's meeting Israeli experts expected Mr Netanyahu to agree to a secret freeze on building in east Jerusalem, despite his public pledges that Jerusalem would never be given up. But the announcement of new apartments in a development funded by Irving Moskowitz, the Jewish-American billionaire, set tempers flaring again.

"Israel is digging itself into a hole that it will have to climb out of if it is serious about peace," Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said. "There is overwhelming international consensus on the illegality of Israel's settlements, including in east Jerusalem, and the damage they are doing to the two-state solution."

In Washington Mr Netanyahu went to great lengths to persuade Congress that his office had no oversight of the many construction projects already under way, catering to an Israeli population of about half a million people in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

This was greeted with scepticism even within the Prime Minister's own coalition. "Netanyahu decided to spit into Obama's eye, this time from up close," said Eitan Cabel, an MP from the Labour Party, an uneasy coalition ally of Mr Netanyahu's Likud party. "He and his pyromaniac ministers insist on setting the Middle East ablaze."

[MikeWB]

After meeting, deafening silence
By: Laura Rozen and Ben Smith
March 23, 2010 11:51 PM EDT

The Obama administration shifted this week from red hot anger at Benjamin Netanyahu to an icier suspicion of the Israeli prime minister, who made clear during marathon meetings with U.S. officials that he would give ground only grudgingly on their goal of stopping construction of new Israeli housing units on disputed territory.

Netanyahu met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on Tuesday evening for an unexpectedly long 89 minutes until about 7 p.m., then stayed to consult in the Roosevelt Room with his own staff, according to a source briefed on the meeting. Obama and Netanyahu then met again for 35 minutes at 8:20 p.m. at Netanyahu's request, the source said. But the meetings were shrouded in unusual secrecy, in part because U.S. officials, who just ten days earlier called the surprise announcement of new housing in East Jerusalem an "insult" and an "affront," made sure to reward Netanyahu with a series of small snubs: There were no photographs released from the meeting and no briefing for the press.

And as of late Tuesday evening, neither side had released the usual "readout" of the meetings' content — a likely indicator of the distance between the sides.

But any impression that Netanyahu's trip would mark a renewal of the troubled relationship between U.S. and Israeli leaders had faded by the time the men met. Netanyahu had spent the previous 24 hours of a U.S. visit lobbying allies in Congress to push back against public American criticism and to turn the focus to Iran, congressional sources said, and delivered a defiant speech to the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, insisting on Israel's right to build in Jerusalem.

He also complained to U.S. officials of his limited power over the housing construction, though he promised in meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden to do his best to avoid future unpleasant surprises, officials said.

The limits of Netanyahu's promise became clear minutes before his scheduled meeting with Obama, when the Jerusalem municipality gave final approval to a settler group to proceed on a controversial development in the city, an announcement which prompted a lawmaker from one of Israeli's liberal opposition parties to call the prime minister a "pyromaniac."

"This is exactly what we expect Prime Minister Netanyahu to get control of," a senior U.S. official told POLITICO Tuesday evening. "The current drip-drip-drip of projects in East Jerusalem impedes progress."

The clearest sign of Netanyahu's rift with the White House, however, may have been his intense focus on Congress, a strategy that has blunted the attempts of many of Obama's predecessors to pressure the Jewish state.

"We in Congress stand by Israel," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, standing beside Netanyahu Tuesday. "In Congress, we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel."

But while Congress was speaking publicly with one voice, behind the scenes Netanyahu seemed to be trying to drive a wedge between lawmakers and the White House.

The Israeli leader met separately with groups of congressmen and senators, finding support on both sides of the aisle, but particular warmth from Republicans.

In an interview with POLITICO after his meeting with Netanyahu, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican member of Congress, made it clear that he supports the Israeli government's plans for new housing in East Jerusalem rather than what he described as the Obama administration's overreaction in criticizing the move.

"None of us believe we ought to go back to the '67 lines," Cantor said. "That brings into question why in the world would some construction in Jerusalem that no one thinks would be part of a Palestinian state ... be an issue."

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana was more critical. He called the White House stance on the Jewish state "absurd," saying President Barack Obama needs to stop trying to "micromanage" Israel on settlement issues.

"I never thought I'd live to see the day that an American administration would denounce the Jewish state of Israel for rebuilding Jerusalem," Pence told reporters.

While Republicans presented themselves as the more steadfast champions of Israel, Democrats were circumspect.

Asked about the Republican criticism, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) sounded as though he had not been talking to the same person as Cantor and Pence. "Well, that's certainly not what [Prime Minister] Netanyahu's message was to us today," he said, adding, "it was a very positive, upbeat meeting."

"I think that the Republicans are spending an enormous amount of time being critical and disparaging without offering any sort of alternatives to anything," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry.

In a meeting with Jewish members of Congress, Netanyahu did most of the talking and determinedly turned the subject from settlements to Iran, according to a Democratic Hill staffer who did not want to be quoted by name.

"He knows that this is something that is going to move members of Congress, even if they are angry about the expansion of Jewish housing, that they are going to respond to Iran as a threat," the staffer said. "He connected Iran to just about every subject that was raised."

Netanyahu, according to this account, pushed members to get a reconciled Iran sanctions bill to the president's desk soon, even if there is collateral damage and that sanctions would hurt ordinary Iranians, not just the regime.

Netanyahu also complained that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is "not a partner; [he] won't come to the table," another Democratic Hill staffer said, summarizing. Netanyahu "made excuses for the complicated [housing] approval process ... the point being he had no idea what happened when Vice President Joe Biden was there."

But with the special relationship between the two countries in a state of unusual ferment, Netanyahu's tortured meetings with the series of Americans appeared anything but decisive.

Netanyahu "is too smart not to understand that Washington has changed," veteran Middle East peace negotiator Aaron David Miller told POLITICO on Tuesday. "And that a potentially transformative president who is now king of the world for a day is facing off against Benjamin Netanyahu, king of Israel. And the fight between the two is not today. What we see now is positioning."

[MikeWB]

Obama, Netanyahu fail to resolve settlement row
Mar 24 08:48 AM US/Eastern
Talks between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to produce signs they had ended a dispute which Netanyahu said could block the Middle East peace process for a year.
Sticking to a hardline position before the White House talks late Tuesday, Netanyahu said peace efforts would be held up by what he called "unreasonable" demands for a freeze on new settlers homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

While Netanyahu's office said the two rounds of talks between the key allies had unfolded in a "good atmosphere", the leaders did not make the customary appearance before the cameras. The White House stayed silent on the meetings.

The US president initially hosted Netanyahu at the White House for 90 minutes. Netanyahu then huddled privately with his staff for more than an hour, after which he met a second time with the president in the Oval Office for a further 35 minutes, officials said. Chronology: US-Israeli relations since 1991

Netanyahu's office said in a statement that advisors to both men were holding follow-up discussions that would continue on Wednesday.

But it gave no details, and White House officials refused to describe the tone or the substance of the talks -- or to to say if any agreements had been proposed or reached.

Earlier, Netanyahu maintained a firm line on US demands for a freeze in settlement construction, warning that a halt to new settlements in east Jerusalem could wind up putting Israel-Palestinian talks on ice.

"If the Americans support the unreasonable demands made by the Palestinians regarding a freeze on settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, the peace process risks being blocked for a year," Netanyahu said.

"Relations between Israel and the United States should not be hostage to differences between the two countries over the peace process with the Palestinians," he was quoted as saying by Israeli media.

Netanyahu was in Washington as the United States is seeking more UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, with Israel concerned that efforts to that end are moving too slowly.

His trip also coincided with Britain ordering the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the "intolerable" use of fake British passports in the killing of a Hamas operative in Dubai two months ago.

In his speech to the powerful US-Israel lobby AIPAC in Washington, Netanyahu stressed that "Jerusalem is not a settlement" -- spelling out an apparent message of no compromise towards Obama.

The United States has warned more Jewish settler homes in east Jerusalem would directly undermine both US credibility as a mediator and efforts to get "proximity" talks started between Israel and the Palestinians.

Washington reacted angrily when -- during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden -- Netanyahu's government announced the construction of 1,600 settler homes in the eastern part of the city.

Despite Netanyahu's apology over the timing of the announcement, the dispute has rumbled on for two weeks.

Even as Tuesday's talks went ahead, it emerged that local officials had given final approval for the building of 20 apartments for Jewish settlers at the site of a former Palestinian hotel in east Jerusalem.

Netanyahu says he is simply following the policies of all Israeli governments since the 1967 war, when Israel seized and later annexed east Jerusalem.

Israel claims all Jerusalem as its eternal capital, while the Palestinians want to make the predominantly Arab eastern sector the capital of their independent state.

The Israeli position was met with anger from Saudi Arabia, where an official criticized its "policy of arrogance and stubbornness in defying the will of the international community."

Deepening the sense of crisis, the Palestinians on Tuesday warned that Netanyahu's position threatens to destroy hopes for serious peace talks.

"What Netanyahu said does not help American efforts and will not serve the efforts of the American administration to return the two sides to indirect negotiations," Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.