Has any president met with another head of state and not offer a statement, joint or otherwise, nor at least offer a photo-op of themselves?
If tensions eased, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are keeping it to themselves -- for the time being, at least. A two-hour face-to-face meeting between the two leaders in the Oval Office on Tuesday night produced not so much as a photo-op.
It came after an uproar over Israel's intention to build new Jewish housing in largely Palestinian East Jerusalem -- a plan first announced during Vice President Biden's visit to Israel two weeks ago, and repeated defiantly by Netanyahu in a speech in Washington on Monday.
The U.S. wants a freeze on new settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank as a way to bring Palestinians back to the bargaining table for renewed peace talks. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that the surprise announcement of new apartment housing was an "insult" to the U.S. -- and the situation has festered ever since.
The virtual news blackout Tuesday was unusual. Such high-level meetings are generally followed by pubic handshakes, and often by joint statements. Obama met with Netanyahu for about an hour and a half, took a break as the session moved to the Roosevelt Room and continued with White House aides. The president rejoined the meeting for another half-hour or so after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
Another slam at our allies?There was a little coverage of this on Fox News, but not much. Considering that Joe the Gaffe Biden recently traveled to Israel, Hillary has been talking about peace talks, you'd think that 0Bama meeting with Netanyahu would be big news.
Was 0Bama avoiding being publicly and personally being slapped down by Bebe, or did he not want to piss off his Muslim brethren?
