ON CAPITOL HILL

WHITE HOUSE STUNNED AT NETANYAHU'S SNUB

'We were surprised to 1st learn via media' PM not coming

Cheryl Chumley

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu jumped ship on a planned meeting with President Obama in Washington, D.C., throwing the White House administration into somewhat of a state of shock.

Apparently, the White House didn’t even receive its first notification of the cancellation from the prime minister or his office.

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“We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said, Fox News reported. “Reports that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister’s schedule are false.”

Fox News reported the newspaper Haaretz, an Israeli media outlet, cited sources who are close to Netanyahu as saying “no appropriate time” could be settled upon to hold the meeting. But another Israeli official, also close to Netanyahu, told the Associated Press the prime minister wanted to avoid any meetings with presidential contenders. And the office of the prime minister said Tuesday that Israel’s ambassador to the United States had already told the White House a week ago there was a “good chance” Netanyahu wouldn’t be able to meet with Obama.

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The White House said Netanyahu had been planning on meeting with Obama and members of the administration around the same time as the American-Israel Political Affairs Committee was set to hold its annual conference, either March 17 or March 18.

Netanyahu opted against traveling to the United States at all.

“We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit,” Price said, Reuters reported.

Relations between the Obama administration and Netanyahu have been somewhat cool, particularly after the White House pressed forward a nuclear deal with Iran that was seen, by Israel and other parties around the world, as dangerous and an open door to Tehran’s development of a nuclear weapon.

The canceled trip also comes as the United States is currently hashing out its latest defense aid amounts for Israel.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/white-house-stunned-at-netanyahus-snub/#CDYIljtxdtGodktw.99