BREAKING: Obama sends Netanyahu surprise invite to White House meeting next week

Published 01:02 26.05.10
Latest update 01:02 26.05.10

Obama sends PM surprise invite to White House meeting next week

Netanyahu will fly to Paris before U.S. trip to participate in an OECD meeting, which Israel has just been invited to join.

By Barak Ravid

[link to www.haaretz.com]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold another White House meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama next Tuesday, Israeli officials said yesterday.

The visit to Washington is being tacked on to the end of Netanyahu's previously scheduled trip to Canada.

Netanyahu will meet in Jerusalem with Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, on Wednesday, who is currently in Israel on vacation. Israeli officials expect that Emanuel will bring the official invitation to next week's meeting with him.

On Thursday, Netanyahu will fly to Paris to participate in a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which Israel has just been invited to join.

On Friday, he will arrive in Toronto for meetings with the local Jewish community, and will observe the annual Walk With Israel parade on Sunday before flying to Ottawa, the Canadian capital, for a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday. He will then head to the United States.

Israeli officials said that Obama wanted to meet with Netanyahu soon, before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrives in Washington for his White House meeting in another few weeks, due to the crisis in relations between Israel and the U.S. and the substantial criticism Obama has taken over it, both from congressmen and from American Jewish leaders.

In recent weeks, the White House has made great efforts to counter this criticism. Last week, Obama met with Jewish congressmen to stress his commitment to Israel's security, while two key aides - Dennis Ross and Dan Shapiro - held similar talks with Jewish leaders. To concretize the administration's commitment to Israel's security, Obama also approved additional funding for Israel's Iron Dome system for defense against short-range rockets.

The Israeli sources said that Washington wants to try to obliterate the memory of the last White House meeting between Obama and Netanyahu. At that meeting, in March, the press was barred and the White House did not even release a joint photo of the two leaders. This treatment - so different from the warm and well-publicized meetings Obama had held with various Arab leaders who visited Washington - was widely viewed as a deliberate attempt to humiliate Netanyahu.

That meeting also revealed serious differences of opinion between the two men on the Palestinian issue, and especially Jewish construction in East Jerusalem. And on top of that, Netanyahu had not come prepared with the answers Obama sought regarding Israel's positions on various final-status issues.

The White House feared the upcoming meeting with Abbas, meant to show Obama's support for the Palestinian leader, would draw unfavorable comparisons with the disastrous March meeting with Netanyahu, thereby deepening the crisis with Israel - and sparking more criticism of Obama's Israel policy. By holding a positive meeting with Netanyahu before Abbas arrives, the administration hopes to deflect such comparisons.

That is why Israeli officials expect that, in contrast to both of Netanyahu's previous meetings with Obama, this one will include a joint photo of the two leaders in the Oval Office and perhaps even a joint press conference.

On Monday, Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, made very positive comments about Netanyahu in two speeches he gave in Washington. He praised Netanyahu for his efforts to advance the peace process, such as the declaration of a 10-month freeze on construction in the settlements and the removal of many Israel Defense Forces checkpoints in the West Bank.

Mitchell also said he believes Netanyahu is capable of reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Having spent many hours with both Netanyahu and Abbas, Mitchell said, he is convinced that both men are very serious in their intention to reach such a deal.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu yesterday made his first public comment on the nuclear fuel deal that Iran reached with Turkey and Brazil earlier this month, under which Iran would send some of its low-enriched uranium abroad and later receive uranium enriched to a 20 percent level in exchange.

"This is a transparent Iranian exercise in deceit, whose purpose is to divert international public opinion from Security Council sanctions against Iran," he told the Knesset. "This is an empty offer, because Iran would retain enough uranium to produce a nuclear weapon."

However, he praised the Obama administration for its efforts to get the Security Council to pass a new sanctions resolution against Iran.

Netanyahu also said he was "happy that the United States made it clear to the Palestinian Authority that there are no preconditions [for talks]. The second principle that I and the United States agree on - and I hope the Palestinians also understand this - is that the proximity talks are [just] a preliminary stage, a short corridor leading to direct talks."