<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[White House tries to limit Netanyahu &#8216;liar&#8217; damage]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<hr align="left" size="1" width="100%" />
<strong>Truth does not matter for &#8220;Israel&#8221;. Buttons Do. </strong><strong><a href="http://wp.me/p16sn9-bBV" target="_blank">To mute</a>.</strong><strong> </strong><strong></strong></p>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="100%" />
<p><img src="https://i2.wp.com/www.maannews.net/images/345x230/153715_345x230.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<div style="text-align:left;margin-top:10px;"><strong>By Alister Bull &#8211; </strong> <strong>Maan News Agency &#8211; Nov 10, 2011</strong></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="BODYdiv" class="ViewDetails_BodyDiv">
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8212; The White House sought on Wednesday to limit damage to US-Israel relations following revelations that French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel &#8220;a liar&#8221; in a private conversation with President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our record speaks very clearly about the president&#8217;s commitment to Israel and he has maintained a very close working relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu,&#8221; White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters, referring to Obama.</p>
<p>Obama has had a difficult relationship with Netanyahu, who criticized him for pushing Israel too hard in the drive for a Middle East peace deal, straining Obama&#8217;s standing with Jewish American voters as he campaigns for re-election next year.</p>
<p>Reporters covering the G20 summit in Cannes last week overheard French President Nicolas Sarkozy call Netanyahu a &#8220;liar&#8221; while talking to Obama.</p>
<p>Instead of contradicting Sarkozy&#8217;s characterization of Netanyahu, Obama appeared to commiserate. &#8220;You&#8217;re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you,&#8221; the US president replied, according to the French interpreter.</p>
<p>The White House declined to comment on the Obama-Sarkozy conversation, citing its private nature.</p>
<p>The exchange was monitored by reporters listening on translation devices while they waited nearby to cover public remarks from the two leaders after their bilateral meeting.</p>
<p>Jewish American voters worried by Obama&#8217;s views on Israel could hurt him in next year&#8217;s general election.</p>
<p>They are a powerful voting bloc in Florida, a vital swing state that Obama won in 2008. In September, his Democrats lost a heavily Jewish New York congressional district that had been in the party&#8217;s hands since the 1920s, with anti-Obama sentiment blamed for the swing.</p>
<p>While not commenting on the &#8220;liar&#8221; remark, the White House went out of its way to stress that Obama was fighting for Israel&#8217;s interests throughout the G20 summit, which was otherwise preoccupied with a euro zone debt crisis.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our actions speak very loudly, which is that this president has taken strategic cooperation with Israel to unprecedented levels,&#8221; Rhodes said.</p>
<p>&#8220;In so far as the Middle East came up at all at the G20, it was the president raising with other leaders his opposition to Palestinian membership in UN agencies,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>France voted in favor of a Palestinian request to join the UN cultural heritage agency UNESCO.</p>
<p>Obama chided him for that vote, according to reporting of their private conversation on a French website that Reuters has confirmed. The day the conversation took place, the PLO announced it they would not seek membership of any other UN agency.</p>
</div>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=435710">Source and more at the Maan News Agency</a></strong></p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/153715_345x2301.jpg?fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[345]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[218]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>