Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set out on a couple media wooing attempts in the wake of a meeting today between himself, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. - an attempt to "narrow the gaps" between their views on how to proceed with peace negotiations.
There's not a lot of news out there about how the talks went; probably there weren't any substantial advances, but hey, at least they shook hands. Netanyahu, meanwhile, seemed to do a skillful public relations job.
Now, Wolf Blitzer isn't known for blockbuster, game-changing interviews. He does a workmanlike job, but he doesn't box people into corners. His interview with Netanyahu was a perfect example of this. And Netanyahu, to put it bluntly, wanted to make sweet ideological love to the American people.
"I think Israel has a terrific friend in America and the American people," he told Blitzer during a roughly 15-minute interview on CNN Tuesday afternoon. Netanyahu said that he feels a palpable affection from Americans when he walks the streets of New York City, or the Midwest for that matter. "[When Obama] stood before the entire Muslim world ... he said the bond between America and Israel is unshakable, we are absolutely committed to Israel's security. I think that was a very important statement."
As Israeli leaders often do, Netanyahu also sought to draw parallels between American and Israeli geopolitical predicaments. When Blitzer brought up the Goldstone report, a U.N. investigation into the clash between Israel and Palestinian forces in Gaza in 2006 that Israel has renounced, Netanyahu said the report essentially gives a free hand to terrorists who wish to attack democracies.
Hamas fighters "get a free bill out of this bias," Netanyahu said. "American pilots, NATO pilots ... are gonna be on the dock ... that's not something that any country fighting terrorism can accept, and I don't think you can accept it too."
Blitzer didn't challenge Netanyahu on that point, which is unfortunate, since on its face Netanyahu's premise makes me, as an American, pause. After all, the U.S. has killed many civilians in the course of its war in Afghanistan, shouldn't we now be afraid that the United Nations will come after us? But upon closer inspection, there are holes in Netanyahu's fear-mongering. The reason Israel is under investigation is the method by which it attacked Hamas in Gaza. Critics of the Goldstone report aren't questioning its conclusions - such as Israeli use of white phosphorous, killings of police officers and bombings of sewage treatment facilities. Instead, they question the premise and bias of the Goldstone report itself.
Blitzer let Netanyahu get off on other questions as well. When he questioned Netanyahu about whether Israel would attack Iran, and what Netanyahu thought about the possibility - raised by Zbigniew Brzezinski - that American jets would confront Israeli planes en route to bombing Iranian nuclear facilities, Netanyahu said he wouldn't deal in hypotheticals and repeated the oft-used line that a nuclear Iran represents a threat to the entire world. Netanyahu's ability to escape Blitzer's lines of questioning brought to mind Ann Curry's unsuccessful interview of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which we liveblogged here. Of course, Curry had a full hour; Blitzer had less than one-third of that.
On the issue of settlements, Netanyahu insisted that his refusal to bow to a full freeze wasn't the main roadblock to peace negotiations with Palestinians - rather, it's the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as "the nation-state of the Jewish people." He also said he wants Palestine to be a demilitarized state.
Finally, Netanyahu insisted that he never called Obama aides David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel "self-hating Jews," as has been alleged. "There's virtually not a day that goes by that the Obama administration and my own government don't communicate on a very senior level on very important matters on very important matters in a very courteous way," Netanyahu said.