Obama, Netanyahu face turning point

WASHINGTON — As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel heads to the White House on Friday for the seventh meeting since President Obama took office, the two men are facing a turning point in a relationship that has never been warm.

By all accounts, they do not trust each other. President Obama has told aides and allies that he does not believe that Mr. Netanyahu will ever be willing to make the kind of big concessions that will lead to a peace deal.

For his part, Mr. Netanyahu has complained that Mr. Obama has pushed Israel too far — a point driven home during a furious phone call with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday morning, just hours before Mr. Obama’s speech, during which the prime minister reacted angrily to the president’s plan to endorse Israel’s pre-1967 borders for a future Palestinian state.

Mr. Obama did not back down. But the last-minute furor highlights the discord as they head into what one Israeli official described as a “train wreck” coming their way: a United Nations General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood in September.

Mr. Netanyahu, his close associates say, desperately wants Mr. Obama to use the diplomatic muscle of the United States to protect Israel from the vote, not only by vetoing it in the Security Council, but also by leaning hard on America’s European allies to get them to reject it as well.


Mr. Obama has indicated that he will certainly do the first. But it remains unclear how far Mr. Obama can go to persuade Britain, France and other American allies to join the United States in rejecting the move, particularly as long as Mr. Netanyahu continues to resist endorsing the pre-1967 lines.

From the day they first met, at the King David Hotel on July 23, 2008, when Mr. Obama, then the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, visited Israel, the two men have struck, at most, an intellectual bond. Mr. Netanyahu, as the leader of Israel’s conservative Likud Party, was far more comfortable with the Republican Party in the United States than with Mr. Obama, the son of a Muslim man from Kenya whose introduction to the Arab-Israeli conflict was initially framed by discussions with pro-Palestinian academics.

“Their relationship is correct at best,” said Judith Kipper, director of Middle East programs at the Institute of World Affairs. Mr. Netanyahu “likes the status quo, and he particularly identifies with conservative Republicans.”

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a friend of Mr. Netanyahu’s, recalled that after the first meeting, Mr. Netanyahu walked out of the hotel and told him that he had been impressed with Mr. Obama’s intellect, and that the American presidency “was his to lose.”

LULU, SALAMA JABIR WABAMBWA, USAGAJI WATAJWA

Shakoor Jongo na Brighton Masalu

MASTAA wawili wanaotamba katika nyanja tofauti, Salama Jabir na Elizabeth Michael ‘Lulu’ (pichani) wamebambwa  ndani ya New Maisha Club, Msasani jijini Dar es Salaam wakifanya mambo ya ajabu, Risasi Jumatano linakudondoshea moja moja.

Mastaa hao wenye majina makubwa, walikuwa wamekaa katika meza moja kama wapenzi huku wakifanya vitendo vilivyovuka mipaka na kuwafanya wadau wa burudani kutafsiri kwamba vilikuwa ni vya kisagaji.

Mapaparazi wetu waliokuwemo ukumbini humo siku hiyo ya Jumapili ya Pasaka, walipigwa na butwaa na ukaribu wa wawili hao ambapo walishtushwa zaidi na maneno ya watu waliokuwa wakimuonea huruma Lulu.

“Kwanza bado mdogo na anapokaa na watu kama akina Salama tulitegemea angefunzwa maisha lakini ndiyo kwanza anafundishwa vitu vya ajabu,” alisema mmoja wa watu waliokuwepo ukumbini humo.

Labda kwa kuwa Lulu na Salama walikuwa hawasikii kile kilichokuwa kikisemwa, waliendelea kuzungusha raundi za vinywaji kwa fujo bila kujali kuwa mmoja wao ni ‘sidanganyiki’ hali iliyozidi kuzua viulizo vingi kwa watu waliokuwa wakiwatazama.

Aidha, baada ya pombe kuwakolea walizidisha vituko na kuonesha kwamba wao ni damu damu na wala hawakuwa na haja ya kumuonea noma na mtu yeyote.

Salama aliyekuwa akipuliza sigara ndiye aliyekuwa kinara wa zoezi hilo kwa kumfanyia vimbwanga hivyo Lulu huku akimshika sehemu mbalimbali ambazo ni hatarishi kwa mwanamke.

Hali hiyo ilisababisha taa nyekundu kuwaka vichwani mwa waandishi wetu, hivyo kuongeza umakini kufuatilia  kila walichokifanya ili kujua hatma ya sinema hiyo ya bure.
Salama aliyewahi kutamba na kipindi cha Planet Bongo cha Runinga ya EATV alimfanya Lulu alegee mithili ya mtu aliyetafuna kungu ndipo mapaparazi wetu walishindwa kuvumilia wakaamua kuwafuata na kuwahoji.

Mmoja wa mapaparazi wetu aliwauliza kulikoni hadi walifikia hatua hiyo ndipo Salama aligeuka mbogo na kuanza kushusha mvua ya matusi na kejeli kama siyo dharau.

“Aaah, jamani sisi tuko bize na mambo yetu, vipi tena tunaanza kufuatiliana hadi sehemu za starehe siyo ustaarabu kabisa, kila mtu afuate mambo yake,” hayo yalikuwa ni baadhi ya maneno ya kistaarabu yaliyotoka kinywani mwa Salama.

Paparazi mwingine alipomuuliza  Lulu alikuwa akifanya nini na Salama, akamjibu kama alivyosema Salama.