REALLY? – AT 8:10 A.M. ET:  Is it that the White House just has a tin ear, or do those guys really think they can fool us just by issuing a public statement?  Sometimes they push much too far:

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House expressed puzzlement Tuesday at widely-held perceptions that President Barack Obama delivered a calculated snub to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.

As a row over Israeli settlement building raged, Netanyahu held late-night talks at the White House a week ago, but did not get a press appearance with Obama and the administration failed to even release an official photo.

He returned home to a torrent of criticism in the Israeli media over his treatment, with some commentators arguing he had been humiliated in a test of wills with Obama over sharp differences on Middle East peace diplomacy.

"I'm puzzled by the notion that somehow it's a bad deal to get two hours with the president almost entirely alone," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"That doesn't seem like a lot of punishment to me."

COMMENT:  In the immortal words of the great philosopher, Jerry Lewis:  "Bad looks you can change, stupid is forever."

I mean, come on.  Everyone knows that Netanyahu was humiliated and treated, as one paper said, like a toxic third-world dictator.  The result was predictable.  The Arabs have stiffened their demands, our resolve as to Iran is being openly questioned by other allies, and the pro-Israel community in America is outraged.

But the White House continues to assure us that nothing was meant by the crude behavior.  Why, the Israeli prime minister got two hours alone with the king of the universe.  That's like saying that a guy who's been whipped for two hours should feel honored because the whipping was done by a member of the royal family. 

Spare us White House "explanations."  Soon we'll be told that an Iranian nuclear bomb is simply a means of providing extra light and clearing unwanted debris.

March 31, 2010