Obama vs. Bibi
The U.S. and Israeli leaders have traded insults, slights and snubs for six years.
Another month, another insult.
Israel and the United States call themselves the strongest of allies, and in many ways they are. But the White House’s latest rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — in the form of an anonymous complaint Wednesday about Netanyahu’s ambassador to Washington— is just one more example of how poisonous the personal relationships between the two governments have become.
The White House stopped short on Thursday of calling for the ouster of Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer after the New York Times quoted an unnamed senior official accusing Dermer of putting Netanyahu’s political fortunes ahead of his country’s interests. Administration officials were irate at Dermer after he arranged an appearance by the Israeli prime minister before a joint session of the Republican-led Congress for March. Netanyahu is a critic of President Obama’s diplomacy with Iran to curb its nuclear weapons program, and his address — never cleared by the White House — is expected to harden congressional opposition to a possible deal with Tehran.
The public rebuke of a foreign ambassador was an exceptional move. But it was in keeping with an Obama-Netanyahu relationship marked by a litany of protocol breaches.
The leaders tried to get the relationship off on the right foot. During a 2008 meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu reportedly pulled the visiting candidate aside and reassured him that, “You and I have a lot in common.”
But Obama was known to prefer Netanyahu’s rival in Israeli’s February 2009 election, Tzipi Livni, which took place just weeks after Obama was sworn in. Livni, leader of the center-left Kadima Party who welcomed efforts to reach a two-state solution with the Palestinians, would have been a like-minded partner for Obama.
Yet it was Netanyahu who unexpectedly emerged as prime minister, and the two leaders— and their senior aides and allies — locked into a instantly distrustful relationship. Things only got testier when Obama began pressuring Israel to halt its construction of settlements as a concession in peace talks with Palestinians.
Over the past six years, the bad chemistry has persisted, producing a long list of diplomatic insults, snubs and embarrassments. Here are the lowlights:
May 2009 — Netanyahu pays his first visit to the Obama White House. Obama officials are upset that, in remarks to the press, the Israeli refuses to endorse a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
June 2009 — Media speculation suggests that Obama might be plotting to force the collapse of Netanyahu’s government.
November 2009 — Open tension defines Netanyahu’s next visit to Washington. The White House doesn’t allow for any photo-ops or press availability, contrary to longstanding practice.
March 2010 — During a visit to Jerusalem by Vice President Joe Biden, Israel announces 1,600 new housing units for Jews in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton places an angry 45-minute call to Netanyahu and tells CNN that the announcement was “insulting.”
March 2010 — On another White House visit, Netanyahu fails to commit to a settlement freeze. By many accounts, a frustrated Obama leaves a working meeting with his Israeli guest to dine with his family. “Let me know if there is anything new,” Obama reportedly tells Netanyahu. While the details of Obama’s exit are disputed, the Israeli media widely describes the episode as a humiliation.
May 2011 — Bibi lectures Obama in front of reporters during a press availability in the Oval Office, explaining recent Jewish history to a visibly irritated U.S. president. Diplomatic experts call it a startlingly aggressive move.
November 2011 — After a G20 summit in Cannes, Obama and then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy are caught discussing Netanyahu on an open mic. After Sarkozy calls Netanyahu a liar, Obama replies, “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day!”
Fall 2012 — Netanyahu appears in a campaign ad for Obama’s Republican opponent Mitt Romney. Netanyahu’s office says the prime minister was not consulted or asked for permission but does not call for the conservative group that sponsored the ad to stop running it. After Romney’s defeat, the New York Times reports that Netanyahu was “widely perceived in Israel and the United States as having supported the Republican challenger.”
September 2012 — In what Reuters calls “a highly unusual rebuff,” Obama snubs a request from Netanyahu for a meeting during the Israeli prime minister’s planned visit to New York for a United Nations meeting.
January 2014 — Frustrated with John Kerry’s Middle East peace diplomacy, which some Israeli officials felt asked too much of them, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon reportedly says that the U.S. Secretary of State has a “messianic fervor” about the peace talks, adding: “The only thing that can ‘save us’ is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.”
July 2014 — Israeli officials complain anonymously in the Israeli media about Kerry, angry that he was working with Turkey and Qatar to broker a Gaza cease-fire on terms they opposed. “Very senior officials in Jerusalem described the proposal that Kerry put on the table as a ‘strategic terrorist attack,’” wrote a prominent Haaretz columnist. A State Department spokeswoman complains of a “misinformation campaign” against Kerry, adding pointedly: “It’s simply not the way partners and allies treat each other.”
August 2014 — After a Kerry-brokered cease fire collapsed, leaving three Israeli troops dead, a furious Netanyahu calls the U.S. ambassador to Israel and warns the Obama administration “not to second-guess me again.” Two weeks later, Obama and Netanyahu have what the Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, describes as a “particularly combative phone call.”
October 2014 — On a visit to Washington, Ya’alon is rewarded with snubs from senior U.S. officials with whom he had reportedly sought meetings, including Joe Biden and national security advisor Susan Rice.
October 2014 — An unnamed “senior Obama administration official” tells The Atlantic, “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit.” A second unnamed official describes the Israeli leader as a “coward” who would not strike Iran’s nuclear program.
January 2015 — Netanyahu accepts an extraordinary invitation from House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of the new Republican Congress. A White House spokesman calls the invitation, and the failure of Boehner or Netanyahu to notify the administration in advance, a “departure” from protocol. Many experts call it an unprecedented diplomatic insult. A week later, a top White House official criticizes Dermer, a close Netanyahu adviser who brokered the invitation, to the New York Times. “I have no regrets whatsoever,” Dermer tells the paper.
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