Sunday, May 24, 2009

Netanyahu-Obama dynamic

David Horowitz is always worth reading, and here is his latest piece on the Netanyahu-Obama meeting in Washington. There is criticism of Netanyahu's refusal to endorse Palestinian statehood in principle, but there is also an interesting description of PR-savvy Bibi's body language in the meeting:
WHERE YITZHAK Rabin and Ariel Sharon were regarded by their American presidential counterparts as experienced elder statesmen, and treated with deference, respect and affection, Obama and Netanyahu was a meeting of heavyweight and, let's kindly say, middleweight, as was clear in the body language and the presentation: Obama, sitting back relaxedly in his chair, was dominant, cool and dispassionate. Netanyahu, in the unaccustomed position of having had some of his arguments rebuffed by his interlocutor, switched from uneasy lecturer, when he leaned forward and looked almost plaintively at the president as he spoke, to subordinate, when he sought to bridge or mask the differences between them, looking down at the floor when his points were weakest.

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