WarSclerotic

WASHINGTON – A U.S. president is a very busy man. But considering the degree of U.S. involvement in the peace process since President Barack Obama took office, all his talk about the strategic importance to the United States of resolving the Middle East conflict, and the suspicions that the Israeli public has developed about the president’s intentions, the absence of direct communication with the Israeli public over the past year and a half stuck out.

Though the White House and the State Department issued statements, responses and background briefings, and the president, his vice president, members of his cabinet and his advisors all answered many questions about Israel and its neighbors for the American media, requests by the Israeli media for interviews were mostly turned down or left unanswered, along with a pile of requests by other foreign media outlets.

	U.S. President Barack Obama. “It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon,” he said in an interview with Channel 2.
	Photo by: AFP

Though no official explanation was given, in view of the series of crises, big and small, that have plagued the relationship between the Obama administration and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, one can assume that there was never a period of calm in which the president both had a reason for giving an interview and could feel comfortable talking about relations with Israel without difficult questions regarding his level of trust in Netanyahu, the settlements, and the stalled negotiations with Iran.

Obama had several meetings with Netanyahu that produced nothing pleasant to talk about. He also had a series of domestic problems to deal with. And before the proximity talks began in May, he had few successes to show on the peace front.

But beyond this, the Israeli public should not have taken the matter personally. Several months ago, White House reporters complained to Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, that for an administration that had promised transparency, and for a president who often appears in public, Obama participated in very few press conferences.

It is not clear whether this interview – coming so soon after Netanyahu’s visit, whose success was preordained – will have a follow-up anytime soon, unless there is progress in the peace negotiations. It is also not unlikely that in order to balance this gesture to Israel, Obama will make a similar gesture to the Arab world. As one reporter asked in an official briefing, if Obama accepts Netanyahu’s invitation to visit Israel, will he also pass through some Arab capital to maintain the balance?