Putting Bibi In His Place

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.)