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May 19, 2009

Putting Bibi In His Place

By Michael Shaw

Obama Netanyahu.jpg

Call it an Israeli Press Office pity party.

While Obama held the line yesterday, emphasizing the need for a Palestinian state and improved relations with Iran, Israel PR frames Obama as leaving Netanyahu in the lurch. This curiously-timed picture gives the sense of Obama as getting up and walking away from Bibi while the Prime Minister is still sitting and talking. And just to add more feedback, across the room we see Rahm leaning on the Resolution desk, answering Netanyahu’s open gesture with his arms firmly crossed.

It’s not to say, however, that the Israelis have it wrong in pushing the narrative of being put in their place. Netanyahu’s look of appeal echoes the photo of a beseeching Peres (met by a rather closed-off Obama) posted on the White House Flickr site a few weeks back.

(image: Handout photo provided by the Israeli Press Office (GPO). White House May 18, 2009. Washington, DC. Via Getty Images.)

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  • Gasho

    Our best buddy, Israel.. the untouchable sacred cow..
    Can’t they see that the more suffering and misery they cause the Palestinians, the more backlash there is going to be against them from the rest of the entire middle east forever and ever? Haven’t we played this horrible game long enough? Isn’t it time to try something different? Treating any group of people as subhuman and denying them basic dignity and well-being is a morally indefensible position — even if, nay, especially if your own group was the victim in the recent past.
    Obama may just be the right guy to take the extremely polarized conflict and find a middle ground. (Both group will probably be upset at first, until they get a taste of the peace it can bring.) Obama can’t afford to take the hard-line Israeli path, as he’s been visibly reaching out to the arab world and wants to keep that hand extended.
    Netanyahu must be wondering how AIPAC let this guy become president! What, you mean this guy’s not in our pocket?? WTF?

  • http://www.woodka.com donna

    Well, Rahm’s look is certainly the one I would give the jerk.
    The hypocrisy of the Israelis never ceases to amaze me.

  • matt

    the photos of obama and netanyahu and obama and peres could not be more different.
    the netanyahu visit looks like a circus.
    the peres visit looks intimate and substantial.

  • Curious

    Rham is not centered. He is standing closer to one flag than the other, which is the other flag? It isn’t clear who Rahm is closed to.

  • http://saleemasinkpot.blogspot.com/ Saleema

    Speaking of Rham and his closed arms. In many of his pictures he has his arms crossed.

  • Johanna

    In any photo Rahm is the one who looks the most posed. In many of his pictures he has his hands on his hips, almost an attempt to call attention to his ballet background with a dancer’s stance. Here he looks like a bouncer or an enforcer, as he often does.

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