Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday, Oct. 1, with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. Before the bilateral meeting, the two gave brief remarks to the press.
President Obama said at the outset something that seemed to surprise Netanyahu. Obama said he believes he has “met with Bibi more than any other world leader during my tenure as president.”
In addition to the usual “unbreakable bonds” and the “ironclad commitment” the U.S. has for Israel’s security, Obama reminded everyone of America’s enormous financial contribution to the Israeli missile defense Iron Dome system.
Each leader inserted at least one finger in each other’s eye. The president stating that “we also have to recognize that we have to find ways to change this status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe in their homes,” but also that “we don’t have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed.”
The term, used derogatorily, “status quo” always signifies the need for Israel to make more territorial concessions and, by the way goshdarnit! stop allowing more Jews to live and breathe in the areas we in the West believe must be reserved for a Judenrein Palestinian state.
The president also mentioned, briefly, that during their bilateral meeting, the two world leaders would be discussing the “rebuilding of Gaza” and Obama would debrief Netanyahu on “the work we are doing to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.”
Obama steadfastly refused to align ISIS with Islam, referring to it as “the cancer of violent extremism,” against which he is “mobilizing a coalition not only for military action, but also to bring about a shift in Arab states and Muslim countries” to isolate that cancer.
The inclusion of Muslim countries in addition to mentioning Arab states is surely a reference to Iran, whose people are not Arabs. Not good news for Netanyahu.
For his part, the Israeli prime minister offered up the sin (by) offering his commitment to “two states for two peoples,” and expressed profuse gratitude to the president for “the support you gave Israel during our difficult days this summer, expressed in so many ways, but also in an additional installment of support for Iron Dome, which has saved so many lives – saved many lives across the board!”
Netanyahu, in the three minutes allotted to him, thanked the U.S. president for the opportunity to meet with him and expressed his full support for the president’s leadership and efforts to defeat ISIS. But he then inserted a soundtrack from his recent UN speech:
We think everyone should support this [the efforts to defeat ISIS], and even more critical is our shared goal of preventing Iran from becoming a military nuclear power.
As you know, Mr. President, Iran seeks a deal that would lift the tough sanctions that you worked so hard to put in place and leave it as a threshold nuclear power. And I fervently hope that under your leadership that would not happen.
The Israeli prime minister wound up his few minutes by reinforcing another meme introduced at his UN talk: taking advantage of new opportunities created by the current situation in the “New Middle East.”
Netanyahu suggested that Israel can work together with Arab countries (note: he did not mention Muslim states) to advance the hopeful agenda, which the president of course endorses, of ensuring a more peaceful, more stable Middle East.