Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down US President Barack Obama’s invitation for talks later this month in Washington, a “surprised” White House said.
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Within hours, however, a flap erupted with the White House, which said that contrary to media reports, Netanyahu had been offered a March 18 meeting with Obama, ahead of the president’s landmark Cuba visit on March 21 and 22.
The debacle regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s canceled trip to the USA was sparked by the ongoing failure to agree the size of the next American military aid package to Israel, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely.
It had offered to host Netanyahu on March 18 during a planned visit by the premier for the annual conference of pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC.
On Monday, unnamed Israeli officials told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Netanyahu had canceled a trip to Washington after the White House couldn’t find time for him to meet with Obama before the president leaves for a historic visit to Havana.
Nonetheless, US Vice-President Joe Biden did, while in Jerusalem on Wednesday, say that the US is “committed to making sure that Israel can defend itself against all serious threats, maintain its qualitative edge with a quantity sufficient to maintain that”, Reuters reports, although the significant of that statement is yet to become clear.
Other press reports have said he’ll be speaking via video conference.
The Israelis are seeking $4.5 billion annually from Washington; the U.S.is targeting a figure of about $3.7 billion.
After the premier’s return home he further angered the president with remarks he made during the Israeli general election, when in a polling-day bid to energise rightwing voters Netanyahu warned that Arab Israelis were going to the polls “in droves” – a comment for which he later apologised. He said that the timing for a move has not yet been determined either, adding that Obama wants to put the Israeli-Palestinian issue on a more promising track before his successor takes office in January.
Even so, Makovsky concluded, “I think these are two countries that understand joint values and the U.S.-Israel relationship is really too big to fail”.
In March 2010, when Biden was on another trip to Israel, the Israeli government announced plans for a new 1,600-home settlement.
Price also referred to Israeli media reports that the White House refused to accommodate Netanyahu’s requests.
By 2011, a peeved Obama was caught on a live mic complaining about Netanyahu in a conversation with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
However, the two leaders met in November in a push to mend ties.
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Tensions between Obama and Netanyahu reached a boiling point previous year over the president’s efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Iran.
