May 21, 2009

To hear the buildup to this week’s first meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you’d have thought it was a boxing match, not a diplomatic tete-a-tete. “Obama team readying for confrontation with Netanyahu,” declared an Israeli daily. “Clash looms over settlements,” shouted a Saudi newspaper. “It is the most fateful encounter of two world leaders since Kennedy met Khrushchev,” a Mideast blogger blustered.

In the end it was a friendly, if not particularly warm, meeting between two leaders with similar goals and divergent tactics. Both men agreed on the nature of the Iranian threat, although Netanyahu would have preferred that stopping Iran precede talk of Israeli-Palestinian peace; Obama is more inclined to see a linkage. Obama, like his two most recent predecessors in the Oval Office, endorses statehood for the Palestinians; Netanyahu doesn’t discount the notion, but is finding it politically expedient to withhold his endorsement until he deems the time is right.

Before and after the meeting, much of the commentary seemed more like wishful thinking than analysis. The anti-Israel Left was almost giddy in its belief that Obama would turn a new “chapter” in its relations with Israel. Translation: Obama will become a voice for the Palestinians and put the “Israeli aggressor” in its place. The pro-Israel Right believed the same thing, basing this notion on the assertions of…the anti-Israel Left.

Instead, Obama remained characteristically non-confrontational. If he felt frustrated with Netanyahu, he didn’t say so publicly. The major takeaway, in fact — the president’s talk of a timetable for judging the effectiveness of his diplomatic strategy toward Iran — was a signal that he understood Israel’s anxieties over Iranian nukes and the security concerns that weigh so heavily on Netanyahu.

Obama may not turn out to be “Israel’s best friend ever,” but he clearly demonstrated he is interested in maintaining the friendship. The meeting suggested that friends can disagree and stay friends, that you can turn a page in a relationship without throwing away the book.

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