Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Obama 'humiliated' Netanyahu at meeting

JERUSALEM: The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, returned to
Israel last night after an apparently disastrous meeting with the US
President, Barack Obama, in Washington.
According to leaked accounts reported in the Israeli media, Mr Obama
humiliated Mr Netanyahu by leaving the meeting early.
''I'm going to the residential wing to have dinner with Michelle and
the girls,'' Mr Obama reportedly said, adding that Mr Netanyahu should
consult his aides about goodwill gestures Israel was prepared to make
towards the Palestinians before renewed peace talks. '''I'm still
around,'' he said. ''Let me know if there is anything new.''
The talks were shrouded in an unusual news blackout, with no statement
issued after the meeting and no official photographs released. US
officials said the two met alone for about 90 minutes. Mr Netanyahu
then huddled with staff separately for 90 minutes before requesting a
second meeting with Mr Obama.
When the President returned, Mr Netanyahu is said to have made a
counter-offer which Mr Obama did not accept.
In an Israeli TV interview before leaving for Israel, Mr Netanyahu
said he had made progress in his meeting with Mr Obama. "I think we
are finding the golden mean between the traditional policy of all the
Israeli governments, and our desire to find a way to renew the peace
process. I think we made progress today."
Relations between Israel and the US were shaken this month when,
during a visit by the US Vice-President, Joe Biden, Israel announced
plans to build 1600 Jewish homes on Palestinian land in occupied East
Jerusalem.
One congressman who met Mr Netanyahu after his White House meeting
said: ''It was awful. Netanyahu looked excessively concerned and
upset. He waved around those pages, eager to persuade us that because
of the complicated approval process for issuing construction permits
in Jerusalem, one could never know in advance when a decision would be
published on the issue.''
Writing in the Israeli Maariv, columnist Ben Caspit said there was no
humiliation exercise the Americans did not try on Mr Netanyahu. ''Bibi
received in the White House the treatment reserved for the president
of Equatorial Guinea,'' Caspit wrote.
Yedioth Ahronoth said the White House ambushed Mr Netanyahu.
''Everything was scrupulously planned, most likely, and the Israeli
Premier, perhaps the most sought-after personage in the Oval Office in
the past two decades, was received like the last of the wazirs from
Lower Senegal.''
The consensus among Israeli commentators is that the US will continue
to exert more pressure on Israel to move swiftly towards the creation
of a Palestinian state.
''The US is abandoning us and effectively turning into Europe,''
Caspit wrote. ''From now on, we are completely alone. The entire
world, from one end to another, talks about a Palestinian state inside
territory similar to 1967.''
''Obama wants to know whether Netanyahu is there. In explicit words,
in writing, not with hints, not with a 'maybe,' not with a 'yes, but'.
A simple question that requires a simple answer.''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/obama-humiliated-netanyahu-at-meeting-20100325-r000.html

 A simple question that requires a simple answer.''
#_Perfect! Just perfect...Good on you Obama!