Snubbed by Obama?

[bemildred]

President Obama did not meet with Egypt's Mohamed Morsi or Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu — the leaders of America's two closest Middle East partners — when he was in New York last week to speak to the United Nations General Assembly. There are sound foreign policy and political reasons why.

Rarely have relations between Washington and these nations been more out of whack. The relationships with both are too big to fail. Still, for Washington, managing them will be much tougher in the period ahead as Israel and Egypt look to their own interests, with much less regard for Washington's.

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Not seeing Morsi was politics plus common sense. There was no point in creating a buddy-buddy image of Obama and Morsi after the Egyptian government's failure to prevent the recent attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo over an anti-Islamic video and its slow response once it began. Why give the Romney campaign a free whack at the White House? With nothing to announce on the bilateral side, it was just as well that the meeting not take place. And Morsi is scheduled to visit later in the year.

Not seeing Netanyahu was bit trickier. Straight politics this close to a presidential election might have demanded it. But the relationship between these two leaders is bad. And Netanyahu's recent public challenge to the U.S. to set a "red line" on the Iran nuclear issue didn't make it any better. A detailed discussion on Iran is necessary. But a meeting with Netanyahu on the margins of the U.N. gathering was the wrong time and place for that. Not seeing Morsi also helped provide a nice pretext and balance to not seeing Netanyahu. Friday's much-publicized phone call between the U.S. and Israeli leaders (rarely touted this way in the trade) is an effort to patch things up and begin that process.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-miller-morsi-netanyahu-no-obama-20120930,0,2678660.story

[Walk away]

1. I don't remember Sheldon Adelson appointing Bibi Netanyahu the U.S. Sec of State.

Why would President Obama feel the need to meet with a man who, obviously, does not have the best interests of the United States or it's citizens at heart.

[King_David]

2. And Morsi ?

[King_David]

3. Obama: Egyptian Government Not Considered An Ally

Obama: Egyptian Government Not Considered An Ally, But Not Our Enemy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/obama-egypt_n_1879549.html


Obama: No ally more important than Israel

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4155627,00.html

[azurnoir]

4. Obama has no meetings scheduled with foreign leaders at U.N. General Assembly

The White House on Monday gave no clear explanation for why President Obama has no bilateral meetings scheduled with the world leaders who are in New York City this week for the United Nations General Assembly. His lack of meetings stands in contrast to last year's General Assembly, when the president held more than a dozen bilateral meetings.

When asked repeatedly about the lack of meetings, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday he was "not going to preview every minute by minute" of the president's schedule. He noted that the president regularly engages directly with world leaders.

"The president just in recent weeks has had intensive consultations with leaders in the region, with the leaders of Turkey, of Egypt, of Israel, of Yemen, of Libya, of Afghanistan, and that process will continue," Carney said. "It is a simple fact that when you're president of the United States, your responsibility as commander-in-chief never ends and you are constantly engaged in matters of foreign affairs and national security. And that's what this president is doing."

........................................................

Republicans have charged that the president is too busy campaigning and that he won't have time to meet bilaterally with world leaders because he's taping an episode of "The View" in New York on Monday afternoon. Earlier this month, conservatives similarly complained that during the Middle East crisis, Mr. Obama gave too much of his time to interviews with entertainment-based media.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57519124-503544/obama-has-no-meetings-scheduled-with-foreign-leaders-at-u.n-general-assembly/

so it seems that Obama snubbed nobody or everybody take your choice

[bemildred]

5. I would imagine at this point he would be uninclined to do anything

that might offer RomNetanyAdelson (or anybody else for that matter) something to "attack", no need to look for "messages".

[azurnoir]

6. unfortunately anything he (Obama) does can be played

from some angle to score political points as in this case the article I posted went on to say that Republicans were saying that Obama was too busy campaigning to pay proper attention to foreign relations with allies and national security so it seems a case of damned if he damned if he doesn't

[bemildred]

7. Yep, you can always drum something up.

It sucks, but it's how we play the game.

Nevertheless, it's better if one can exploit something your opponent really said or did. And O is pretty sharp about that sort of rhetorical chess, avoiding usages and phrases that will offer some pretext.

The popularity of mis-construing other posters here is NOTHING compared to politics, nevertheless getting involved here has taught me much about that.

[azurnoir]

8. Tis the season

wish I could think up some lyrics, something to the tune of O come all ye faithful

[bemildred]

9. "Trust The Force Luke! Let The Force guide your hand!"

Yah.