Netanyahu spends unheralded time at White House

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"Amid high tensions in U.S.-Israeli relations, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with President Obama for a total of two hours in two meetings at the White House Tuesday night under a virtual news blackout.

No reporters or photographers were invited to record the scene or even a handshake between the two leaders, who met one day after Netanyahu, in a speech to a pro-Israel group, rejected the administration's plea that he halt construction in a disputed area of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians as their capital.

Generally, a leader of an ally would expect to have a joint news conference with the president or at least a joint appearance before photographers. But the White House did not even immediately release a statement providing a summary of the meeting's topics.

A U.S. official said that Obama and Netanyahu initially met in the Oval Office from 5:34 to 7:03 p.m. Obama then went to the residence while Netanyahu conferred with his aides in the Roosevelt room. Netanyahu then requested another meeting, and the two leaders returned to the Oval Office for a discussion that lasted from 8:20 to 8:55 p.m., the official said. He did not provide an explanation for the two meetings."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032404910.html


After meeting, deafening silence

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

Netanyahu met with President Barack Obama Tuesday evening in two sessions, the first an unexpectedly-long 90 minutes, according to one source briefed on the meeting. 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 group AIPAC, insisting on Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34914.html#ixzz0j4WGjKo4

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think that threatening war in Iran is a cover for expansion.

"..... ,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 group AIPAC, insisting on Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem."