Bibi beggars belief

This has always been the case of course but I didn't get round to doing a post, when it was news, about Sarkozy and Obama pouring their hearts out to each other about what an indignity it is having to deal with Netanyahu, in Obama's case, every day.  An article in today's Ha'aretz has given me the excuse to dust off the old news and to run an alliterative headline which I always enjoy:

If the law enabled putting leaders on trial for serial defrauding of the public and obtaining support through deception, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be keeping company with Moshe Katsav in prison. The former president has been convicted of raping women who were his subordinates and misuse of his authority. Netanyahu is having his nefarious way with Israeli democracy and using his status in order to lead Israeli society astray, all the way to diplomatic and economic isolation. From there it is but a short way to regional war and apartheid - the only question is which will come first. Yet nevertheless, a whole country is continuing to give in willingly to a liar who does not cease to harass and endanger it.

Silly article really but that's my excuse for revisiting the Sarkozy, Obama, Netanyahu business out of the way.

There's another article in today's Ha'aretz describing Obama's side of the conversation with Sarkozy as a "gaffe" which I suppose leaving the microphone on was.  Apparently Obama has acknowledged the "gaffe" but

“With respect to the ‘hot mic’ in France, I'm not going to comment on conversations that I have with individual leaders,” Obama said in Hawaii.

But the thing about the affair which troubled me most was this:

Several journalists, including a few from large media organizations, heard the initial exchange between Obama and Sarkozy but did not initially report it, agreeing among themselves that to do so would be a violation of journalistic ethics.

Now how on earth does it violate journalistic ethics to report that two presidents who support Netanyahu in everything he does don't actually believe a word he says? Surely it is more of a violation of their calling that journalists agree among themselves to cover up such a newsworthy report.