“Starting Over” — that was the headline that Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth gave to the meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Nov. 9. It was accompanied by a photo of a formal handshake between the two men. Daily Maariv chose “Reconciliation Meeting” as its headline and featured a picture of the two leaders smiling. The other media, both print and digital, also described the summit meeting in terms that seemed overly positive. Channels 2 and 10 reported that the meeting had been conciliatory. Also, all media outlets stressed that the meeting went 45 minutes over its allotted time, indicating that the mood in the Oval Office was good.
In the end, however, the meeting between the two men — after over a year in which they did not see each other, and with their tense and fragile relationship hovering in the background — did not create any real headlines, or any interest at all for that matter. The only interesting thing was that it took place, which is in itself important.
