Jerusalem: Relations between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been fraught since both men took office in 2009.
Here is a summary of their troubled ties:
- 2009 -
On his first White House visit, in May, Obama officials were said to be irked that Netanyahu, in remarks to the media, avoided endorsing Palestinian statehood.
Netanyahu in his turn took offence the following month when Obama, on one of his first overseas trips, visited neighbouring Egypt and Saudi Arabia but left Israel off his itinerary.
To add insult to injury the US president delivered a speech in Cairo in which he said that the US "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements".
- 2010 -
Settlements were at the root of a flare-up in March when, as Vice President Joe Biden was visiting, Israel unveiled plans to build 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem. Visiting the White House later that month Netanyahu got the cold shoulder and was denied the privileges customarily granted to foreign dignitaries, even the ritual handshake photo.
- 2011 -
On a May visit, Netanyahu again got under Obama's skin by publicly lecturing him in the Oval Office on the historic struggles of the Jewish people -- live on television. In November, during a private conversation at the G20 summit in Cannes with then French president Nicolas Sarkozy on the topic of Netanyahu, Obama was overheard telling his host, "You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day."
- 2012-2013 -
During Obama's re-election campaign White House officials saw the conservative Netanyahu as openly backing Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who visited Jerusalem and slammed what he said was Obama's weak and misguided Middle East policy.
- 2015 -
Tensions hit a new high when Netanyahu, fighting Obama's policy for a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme, accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress on the issue in March, denouncing the accord as it was being negotiated.
Obama refused to meet Netanyahu during his stay in Washington.
After the premier's return home he further angered the president with remarks he made during the Israeli general election, when in a polling-day bid to energise rightwing voters Netanyahu warned that Arab Israelis were going to the polls "in droves" -- a comment for which he later apologised.
- 2016 -
Netanyahu declined an invitation for March talks with Obama, leaving the White House "surprised" and saying it first learned of the cancellation through news reports.
AFP
