Saturday May 23, 2015

I've Been Thinking:

President Obama spoke at Adas Israel in Washington yesterday. His topic was the condemnation of anti-Semitism. The president also spoke about his love for Israel and for Jews.

The day before his synagogue appearance, the Atlantic published an interview with the president -- an interview conducted by Jeffery Goldberg.

The essence of the interview in the Atlantic is that Barack Obama is aware of the gravity and the danger of the Iranian threat. The president realizes should Iran get a nuclear weapon - it will be his fault.

This is extremely powerful. Presidential ownership and responsibility has not been the norm. But as powerful as it is, it is not very comforting. So he owns the mistake - but in the end that does not make either Israel or the region any safer.

What struck me about the interview was not the insight Goldberg gave us into the Obama Iranian genuflection.

I was struck that Barack Obama sat down with Jeffrey Goldberg for the interview.

It was Jeffrey Goldberg, in the Atlantic, who gave the White House that huge black eye in October of last year on the subject of tensions between Washington and Jerusalem. It was Goldberg who quoted a senior White House official saying "The thing about Bibi is, he's a chickensh*t."

We were told that this was a huge embarrassment for the White House.
Told that heads would roll because of the statement. How could a senior person in the White House use that kind of terminology and refer to America's stalwart friend so smugly. Some guessed that the entire episode was a plant. The White House wanted to send a clear message to Netanyahu and this is how they chose to get that message across.

Months later, it seems clear those who always believed that the statement was intentionally made and printed were right on the money. Otherwise, why grant Goldberg, or for that matter anyone who writes for the Atlantic, a face to face just a few short months after that terrible faux pas.

Unless of course it was not a misspeak - but a deliberate message.

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