Transcript from the Situation Room Aired on March 23,2010
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is over at the White House this hour. He's meeting with the president behind closed doors during a relatively stressful moment in U.S.-Israeli relations.
Let's bring in our senior political analyst, David Gergen -- David, he's about to go into the West Wing of the White House. You served four presidents. The prime minister of a close friend and ally like Israel comes to the White House, meets at, what, 5:30 in the afternoon, behind closed doors, no cameras there, no public statements.
What does that say to you?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: That suggests, Wolf, that this is a very delicate moment. Relations between these two countries and between Netanyahu and President Obama are on a knife edge. And they're -- they're obviously, in the White House, going to be very cautious. You let reporters in there, you start having questions and you never know which way it's going to jump or bounce. And, you know, somebody may say something and then you're -- then you've got -- you worsen the situation. So this is a -- in some ways, Wolf, it's so interesting, because this is almost a mano a mano kind of a situation right now, in which the U.S., in the form of
BLITZER: I'll play that little clip. And I want to tell our viewers, we're looking at live pictures at -- at the White House. We expect the prime minister's motorcade to be driving into the driveway any moment now. We'll show that to our viewers.
But here's what the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said last night at a conference of pro-Israeli activists in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement, it's our capital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And you see the limousine bringing in the
You were going to make a point about that very blunt statement that the prime minister made last night. It comes on the heels of -- of the
GERGEN: Yes. It's -- Wolf, this is so unusual. You know this so very, very well -- better than I do. It -- to have this kind of dispute out in the open and to have other parties now looking over their shoulders. In the United States, you've got Republicans and conservatives beating up on the administration for being too tough on Israel. And -- and in the
There's been an effort by the United States that this president, one of his major issues beyond health care, he's got a lot of other things on his plate, has been to restart the peace talks in the middle east and get something done. He really wanted it done by now. So there's a lot to discuss here. And, of course, there's the bigger issue overhanging all of this and that is Iran. For Israel and the United States to have differences over settlements not only can complicate and is complicating how the talks of the
GERGEN: A lot of them.
BLITZER: You saw that little arrival ceremony. He got out of the limo, walked into the west wing of the white house, received there and now that meeting, we assume, is going to start between the president and the prime minister. We'll see what happens.
GERGEN: Wolf --
BLITZER: If they make a joint statement, if they don't make a joint statement. Right now nothing is scheduled. He's not supposed to go to the microphones, the prime minister after the meeting, he's supposed to go to the limo and leave. We'll see what happens.
GERGEN: I think it's very important what they do now after this meeting. If they come out with a joint statement, that would suggest they really did begin to patch things up. If they leave without a statement, it suggests there's a very frosty situation in the oval office.
BLITZER: I suspect it will be the latter, but we'll see what happens. All right. David, thanks very much.
GERGEN: Thank you.