Obama: Pay No Attention To What Abbas And Netanyahu Say

Not indication whether that advice is specific, or whether perhaps we should apply it generally to whatever Obama says as well:

President Obama, in a private conference call Wednesday, told an audience of Jewish leaders to discount non-constructive statements made by Israeli and Palestinian leaders as Middle East peace talks move forward, saying that such remarks are all part of the negotiating game.

The groups represented on the call were from across the Jewish religious spectrum: They included the orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, the conservative Rabbinical Assembly, the reform Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.

Obama implored the rabbis on the call to publicly support the talks, and to try to rally their own people to support the negotiations. The call was timed in advance of the start of the Jewish high holy days, when the Rabbis see the largest turnout of the year among their congregants. Along those lines, he asked them to discount statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas when they say things in public that make the talks seem doomed. That's mainly for the local television cameras, Obama said.

I don't know--are you sure we shouldn't be applying this advice to what Obama says as well?

"What you're going to see over the next several months is that at any given moment, either President Abbas or Prime Minister Netanyahu may end up saying certain things for domestic consumption, for their constituencies and so forth, that may not be as reflective of that spirit of compromise we would like to see. Well, that's the nature of these talks," Obama said.

These talks, or the way negotiations are done in general?

Anyway, so when Abbas says, "I can’t allow myself to make even one concession," we should not pay any attention, because he is just saying that for the sake of the Arabs in the West Bank?

So really, Abbas actually is willing to make compromises?
Good to know!
Boy, is the Arab world in for a shock, hee-hee


But seriously, when Obama says stuff like:

I am stunned at how cordial and constructive the talks were.

that's for public consumption, and I should ignore that too, right?

Technorati Tag: Mideast Peace Talks and Abbas and Obama.