Like the jealous high school girl who plans a party to fall on the same night as her chief rival’s festivities, Barack Obama is planning to create “news events” to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t get the press coverage an address before a joint session of Congress by a foreign leader would normally receive.
According to the Associated Press, “the White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad for Israel and the world.”
There are limits. Administration officials have discarded the idea of President Barack Obama himself giving an Iran-related address to rebut the two speeches Netanyahu is to deliver during his early March visit. But other options remain on the table.
Among them: a presidential interview with a prominent journalist known for coverage of the rift between Obama and Netanyahu, multiple Sunday show television appearances by senior national security aides and a pointed snub of America’s leading pro-Israel lobby, which is holding its annual meeting while Netanyahu is in Washington, according to the officials.
Perhaps the President will hold a sleepover at the White House for his favorite members of the press.
Cross-posted at The Lid
