Must Be More Of That "Smart Diplomacy"

This is one of the worst headlines I've ever read: "White House declines Netanyahu request to meet with Obama."  Oh, it's not like Bibi's got anything pressing to discuss, right?  Pfffft.  Now late in the day the media says that Obama and Netanyahu spoke on the phone for an hour and that there had been no actual dissing of Bibi.  Somehow it all feels like playing catch-up.  Leading from behind again, are we?

Anyway, you're trying to tell me that in the same timeframe, virtually the same day, the American diplomatic missions in Cairo and Benghazi got attacked - actually, physically stormed - by frenzied mobs, and here the President is publicly having issues with the leader of Israel? The same leader who's dreadfully (and, let's face it, understandably) frustrated by the current approach to a hostile Iran's nuclear ambitions?  The optics of all this is just horrendous, both the initial breaking of the news and then the weird backpedaling that followed.  I want to slam my head on my desk.  (I would, but the desk has too many books on it so there's not enough space. I suppose I could slam my head on one of the stacks of books on said desk?)

Meanwhile, we're getting idiotic headlines like this from the Los Angeles Times: "Israeli leader ratchets up feud with US over Iran."  Really?  It's all Netanyahu's fault?  That's a tendentious, BS headline, and you know it.  This also has a tendentious headline, though some of the content in the actual piece might be worth a glance.

It's late and I'm tired and I'm frankly not only a little unhappy about having the quality of leadership that we do right now in the reality of a dangerous world.  The whole "Arab Spring"/Egyptian revolution business has blown up in our faces, the liberal reformers got shafted, and the entire neighborhood's gotten a whole lot more perilous.  I'm going to bed before anything else happens.  Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to comment more clearly.  I'll just close with this: Ultimately and overall, the Canadians are probably going to prove themselves totally ahead of the curve.