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Why Do Sarkozy and Obama Hate Netanyahu?
(Washington Post) Jackson Diehl - Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have been the target of some ugly - if off the record - barbs from President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Speaking privately (they thought) in Cannes last week, Sarkozy said, "I cannot bear" Netanyahu, adding that he was "a liar." "You're fed up, but I have to deal with him every day," Obama responded. But are their feelings justified? Since taking office, Netanyahu has been mostly responsive to the U.S. president's initiatives. Early on he announced his acceptance of Palestinian statehood, something he has never done; he responded to Obama's misguided demand for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem by imposing a ten-month moratorium. Though Netanyahu has recently allowed new settlement construction, it mostly has been in neighborhoods that Palestinian leaders have already conceded will be part of Israel in a final settlement. In other words, Netanyahu has been an occasionally difficult but ultimately cooperative partner. He can be accused of moving too slowly and offering too little, but not of failing to heed American initiatives. And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas? Abbas, it's fair to say, has gone from resisting U.S. and French diplomacy to actively seeking to undermine it.