A2 Politics & The Nation
Clean-air rule aims to limit coal emissions ...........................................A3 Queen Elizabeth II addresses U.N. ........................................................A3 Democrats digging harder than ever for Republican dirt ..................A4 Obama to use recess appointment to name new Medicare, Medicaid head .................................................A4 Unions outspending corporations on campaign ads ...........................A4
CORRECTIONS A
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 Alliance, or dysfunctional relationship?
blue-and-white Israeli flag hung from Blair House. Across Pennsylvania
THE OAHUAN, YEARBOOK OF PUNAHOU SCHOOL, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this 1979 Punahou team photo, Dan Hale is in the second row, second from right, wearing number 31. Barack Obama is at top right.
A photo caption with a July 6 Sports article about Dan Hale, the new boys’ basketball coach at Marshall High School in Fairfax County and a high school team- mate of Barack Obama’s at the Pu- nahou School in Hawaii, identi- fied another Punahou player as Hale. The photo is reprinted here with a corrected caption.
In some editions, a Page One photo caption with a July 6 article
about the academic progress at Sousa Middle School in the Dis- trict misidentified the school offi- cial pictured. He is Assistant Prin- cipal Michael Revell, not Princi- pal Dwan Jordon.
A map with the continuation of a July 4 Page One article about voter attitudes in heartland states incorrectly labeled Lexington as the capital of Kentucky. The cap- ital is Frankfort.
A July 4 Outlook book review of Adrian Johns’s “Piracy: The Intel- lectual Property Wars From Gu- tenberg to Gates” misspelled Johns’s name as Jones in two ref- erences.
Standings for Group C in the World Cup soccer competition were incorrect in the June 20 and 21 Sports sections. Correct up- dated standings can be found at
wapo.st/cupstandings.
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Open: Mon–Sat 9–9; Sunday 11–5 Obama, Netanyahu thaw relations
Israeli leader says direct talks with Palestinians will happen soon
by Anne E. Kornblut and Michael D. Shear
Israeli Prime Minister Binya-
min Netanyahu offered to take “concrete steps” toward advanc- ing the moribund Middle East peace process, saying during a closely watched meeting at the White House on Tuesday that he expects direct negotiations with the Palestinians to begin in a matter of weeks. “I think it’s high time to begin
direct talks,” Netanyahu told re- porters in the Oval Office. His remarks came during a
makeup session with President Obama, their first meeting since Israel raided an aid flotilla head- ing toward Gaza, straining rela- tionships in the region and fur-
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postpolitics.com Easing tensions
Anne E. Kornblut on Obama and Netanyahu’s
meeting at the White House on “Top Line.”
ther complicating efforts to move the peace talks to the next phase. Obama embraced the offer, also saying that direct talks should begin in “weeks,” before a freeze on Israeli settlement construc- tion, a condition of the talks, is set to end on Sept. 26. Several important deadlines are on the horizon: In addition to the expiration of the settlement moratorium, time is running out on the “proximity talks” between the Palestinians and Israelis, which are scheduled to last through September. And Turkey —a onetime ally of Israel that has turned bitter since the flotilla raid, in which nine Turkish citi- zens were killed — is poised to as- sume the leadership of the U.N. Security Council that month. On Tuesday, Obama and Ne-
tanyahu were eager to demon- strate unity. The visit — Netanya- hu’s fourth since Obama took of- fice — was carefully staged as a counterpoint to the closed-door meeting the two leaders held in March. White House officials did not arrange for that earlier visit to be photographed, a diplomatic slight that reflected Obama’s dis- pleasure with Israel’s plans, an- nounced in March as Vice Presi- dent Biden was visiting the re- gion, to build 1,600 housing units in a disputed area of Jerusalem. This time, with camera shut- ters whirring around them, Oba- ma sat alongside Netanyahu and challenged the notion of any rift between the allies. “If you look at every public statement that I’ve made over the last year and a half, it has been a constant reaf- firmation of the special relation- ship between the United States and Israel, that our commitment to Israel’s security has been un- wavering. And, in fact, there aren’t any concrete policies that you could point to that would contradict that,” Obama said. He acknowledged that Netanyahu has to make “difficult choices” and that the two have “robust dis- cussions” from time to time.
“But the fact of the matter is
that I’ve trusted Prime Minister Netanyahu since I met him be- fore I was elected president, and have said so both publicly and privately,” Obama said. In fact, from the earlier settle- ment announcement to the May 31 flotilla raid, there had been multiple sources of tension be- tween the two governments in re- cent months. But both sides played down any disagreements leading up to the White House visit, instead emphasizing areas of common ground and pointing to steps by Israel portrayed as conciliatory, including easing its long-standing blockade of items allowed into Gaza and taking dis- ciplinary action against troops involved in Israel’s military in- cursion into the territory in late 2008 and early 2009. As for the peace process, Ne-
tanyahu did not indicate whether he will extend the moratorium on settlement construction, a condi- tion laid out by Palestinian Au- thority President Mahmoud Ab- bas. But Diana Buttu, a former negotiator for the Palestine Lib- eration Organization, said she thinks the talks will occur any- way. Whether they will yield sus- tainable results is another mat- ter. Abbas, she said, is “going to face a real uphill battle” in trying to convince Palestinians of the value of direct talks. “Does it mean he won’t try?” she said. “He probably will enter into negotia- tions even though people here just don’t believe in them any- more.” Netanyahu may face similar re- sistance within his government. His foreign minister, Avigdor Lie- berman, said late last month that he saw “no chance” of a Palestin- ian state emerging by 2012, a tar- get set by the United States and other international mediators. After hismeeting with Obama, which lasted 80 minutes, Netan- yahu joined the president for a working lunch in the Roosevelt Room that included senior offi- cials. Having made so many trips to
Washington, Netanyahu invited Obama and his family to visit Is- rael. “It’s about time,” the Israeli leader said. Obama said he looks forward to it.
kornbluta@washpost.com shearm@washpost.com
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Avenue, the Stars and Stripes was in its usual place atop the White House. But to capture the real significance of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit with President Obama, White House officials might have instead flown the white flag of surrender. Four months ago, the Obama administration made a politically perilous decision to condemn Israel over a controversial new settlement. The Israel lobby reared up, Netanyahu denounced the administration’s actions, Republican leaders sided with Netanyahu, and Democrats ran for cover. So on Tuesday, Obama, routed and humiliated by his Israeli counterpart, invited Netanyahu back to the White House for what might be called the Oil of Olay Summit: It was all about saving face. The president, beaming in the
Oval Office with a dour Netanyahu at his side, gushed about the “extraordinary friendship between our two countries.” He performed the Full Monty of pro-Israel pandering: “The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable” . . . “I commended Prime Minister Netanyahu” . . . “Our two countries are working cooperatively” . . . “unwavering in our commitment” . . . “our relationship has broadened” . . . “continuing to improve” . . . “We are committed to that special bond, and we are going to do what’s required to back that up.” An Israeli reporter attempted to summon the effusive American back to reality: “Mr. President, in the past year, you distanced yourself from Israel and gave a cold shoulder to the prime minister. Do you think this policy was a mistake? . . . Do you trust Prime Minister Netanyahu?”
Obama assumed an amused
grin. “Well, let me first of all say that the premise of your question was wrong, and I entirely disagree with it,” he said. He said he had always engaged in “a constant reaffirmation of the special relationship” with Israel, and “I’ve trusted Prime Minister Netanyahu since I met him before I was elected president.” So that business about Hillary Clinton calling Israel’s settlement
DANA MILBANK Washington Sketch
figure who spoke to them from Cairo last year. A Pew Research Center poll last month found that the percentage of Muslims expressing confidence in Obama fell from 41 percent to 31 percent in Egypt and from 33 percent to 23 percent in Turkey. Obama snubbed Netanyahu at their last meeting, shortly after Israel’s announcement during a visit by Vice President Biden that it would build new housing in a disputed area of Jerusalem. No statement or photograph of the meeting was made public. But Israel didn’t back down, and neither did it heed administration pleas to use “caution and restraint” before the deadly raid by Israeli commandos on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Netanyahu arrived at the White House to see bulldozers and piles of rubble along the West Wing driveway from a construction project on the North Lawn. Inside, he found more construction underway: Obama feverishly rebuilding the U.S.-Israel relationship. The president’s opening statement in front of the cameras contained not a word of criticism of the Jewish state. “Well, I just completed an
MARK WILSON/POOL Netanyahu and Obama, down the garden path.
on
washingtonpost.com/roughsketch Sketchiest Moments
A daily compendium of the best political oddities, ironies and screw-ups on the Web, assembled by Dana Milbank and Post
Politics producers.
action “insulting” and the State Department accusing Israel of a “deeply negative signal” that “undermined trust and confidence in the peace process and in America’s interests”? You must have imagined it. Obama came to office with an
admirable hope of reviving Middle East peace efforts by appealing to the Arab world and positioning himself as more of an honest broker. But he has now learned the painful lesson that domestic politics won’t allow such a stand. On Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House on
Tuesday, liberal activists protested what many of them see as a betrayal. “We want to appeal to Obama to stand up for once, to get a little vertebrate in his invertebrate back and speak to Netanyahu in no uncertain terms,” protester Ray McGovern shouted into a bullhorn. Obama, he added, is “a president who by all indications is what we call in the Bronx a ‘wuss’: a person who will not stand up for what he knows is right.” Even before Obama’s surrender to Netanyahu, Muslims were losing faith that he would be the transformational
excellent one-on-one discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” he began. For those tuning in late, he added at the end: “So I just want to say, once again, that I thought the discussion that we had was excellent.” Netanyahu was pleased with the pandering. “Mr. President, I want to thank you for reaffirming to me in private and now in public, as you did, the long-standing U.S. commitments to Israel.”
Obama didn’t even mention
Israel’s settlements until a reporter inquired — and then he declined to say that Israel should extend a moratorium on settlements that expires in September. Avoiding any criticism of Israel, he instead directed Palestinians not to look for “excuses for incitement” or “opportunities to embarrass Israel.” Netanyahu celebrated victory.
“To paraphrase Mark Twain,” he said, “the reports about the demise of the special U.S.-Israel relationship aren’t just premature, they’re just flat wrong.”
danamilbank@washpost.com
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