The Israeli party pooper arrived in Washington, walked into the White House and seemed to have learned some manners and etiquette in the interim. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown that you can still change after turning 60. After all, he was responsible for the horror show with US President Barack Obama at the White House when he gave the American president a learned and reproachful tirade in front of the media. This traumatic event, which took place in 2009 at their first meeting during the first term of both leaders, has been dubbed “The Lecture” in the United States. Obama must have felt the way President Bill Clinton felt after his first meeting with Netanyahu in 1996.

But this is 2013, and Obama and Netanyahu have built a certain kind of trust. The Israeli premier was careful on Sept. 30 to show reverence toward the American president, emphasizing their points of agreement while elegantly glossing over the moot issues. He was careful not to be a wet blanket on Obama’s party, especially with fallout over the US federal budget expected the next day, an issue of much greater interest to the American president and public than the centrifuges in Natanz. 

That being the case, Netanyahu still planned to relish the opportunity to ruin the world’s party during his address to the UN General Assembly on Oct. 1. This article was written before the speech, and the information provided here is based on discussions, assessments and positions voiced in the backrooms of the offices of the prime minister and members of the top echelon of Israeli politics prior to Netanyahu's departure for the United States.

My assumption is that some of these things came up during the tête-à-tête between Netanyahu and Obama while some did not. Even the terminology used by defense chiefs and senior ministers at meetings with Netanyahu radically changes when the prime minister steps into the Oval Office. Presumably, the atmosphere at the meeting between the two leaders was most probably less relaxed than what they displayed at their joint press conference.