The World

A senior European diplomat I met last week predicted that the Obama-Netanyahu talks would be “very tough in private, but very calm in public.” Well, the two leaders have just emerged and staged a brief press conference and – in public – they were indeed leaning over to be nice to each other.

Netanyahu, often self-confident and aggressive in private, was a real pussy-cat. He was clearly eager to sound reasonable and optimistic. There were no dark warnings about impending Armageddons. Instead he talked about a moment of unique opportunity in the Middle East because Arabs and Israelis “see a common threat”. Perhaps it was just a different way of talking up the threat of Iran – but it sounded more positive. The Israeli leader also kept emphasising what a great friend of Israel Obama is; there was no overt effort to question the president’s committment to Israel’s security – even though what Obama had to say (and his manner) was very different from the back-slapping, unquestioning support for the Israeli point of view that George W. Bush used to offer.

While Obama made the usual statements about the threats to Israel, he also carefully balanced this with a long and fairly detailed exposition of the dire situation in Gaza. And his praise for Netanyahu was also a sort of challenge. He stressed the Israeli’s “historical vision” and said that -”I’ve great confidence he’s going to rise to the challenge.” Was there the tiniest hint of a threat there? A suggestion that he intends to make sure that Netanyahu is challenged?

With the Israeli prime minister on his best behaviour, it was left to Israeli journalists to express some of the widespread distrust of Obama that undoubtedly exists in the Jewish state. One asked the US president if his policy to Iran didn’t risk looking weak. I thought Obama bridled slightly at this. He’s not used to journalists using words like that to him. His first response – “I’m not sure why my out-stretched hand would be interpreted as weakness” was a bit stiff. But he then gave a fairly eloquent defence of diplomacy, while Netanyahu looked grave and nodded in apparent agreement. What Netanyahu really thinks, is another matter.