Will The White House Gossip Girl Ever Reveal Herself?

Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post wrote yesterday that

At first blush, it might seem that the White House has become unhinged over an appearance by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a joint session of Congress. After days of whining that Netanyahu’s appearance was not cleared with the White House, U.S. officials have taken to the [New York Times] to anonymously screech and moan, accusing the Israeli ambassador — gasp! — of furthering the prime minister’s interests at the expense of his relations with the administration. (This is rich, considering the president’s hot-mike comment about Netanyahu and a senior official’s recent use of a barnyard epithet to criticize Netanyahu). In a separate New York Times article (one was not enough to assist the White House propaganda machine!), the Netanyahu speech is portrayed as helping the White House round up opposition to the Menendez-Kirk sanctions. The kicker is a quote from the president of the notoriously anti-Israel J Street  – which the Times originally falsely labeled as “a Democratic-aligned pro-Israel group” and later changed to “Israeli advocacy group” after a spate of mocking tweets on Wednesday night — piling on the anti-Netanyahu criticism. . . . The complaint from the White House is so disproportionate to the issue and so defensive (is the president so petrified that Congress might hear a compelling speech from the United States’ best ally in the Middle East?) that one wonders what it is up to.

By devoting space to small-minded insults against the Israeli Ambassador, intended obviously to keep this spat between Obama and Netanyahu in the headlines, the New York Times has made itself even more ridiculous than it already was, if that’s possible. All it does with this “article” is offer more proof of its hostility to Israel and its Prime Minister.

As for the source of these epithets, the White House, there is a disturbing pattern of both pettiness and anonymity — an anonymity which allows the White House to hide from its own comments, while still benefitting from their damaging effect. Quite memorably, in October, an anonymous White House staffer called Netanyahu “chickenshit.” Last week, another anonymous source, or perhaps the same one, told the Washington Post that Netanyahu’s audacity in accepting an invitation from the Speaker of the US House of Representatives could have “lasting consequences.” A week later, the administration is still stewing over this perceived slight, with yet another, or perhaps still the same, anonymous source badmouthing Ambassador Dermer.

Will we ever get a big reveal?

Of course, by the time this clip aired, most people had lost interest.

9 thoughts on “Will The White House Gossip Girl Ever Reveal Herself?”

  1. Are they really going to tell us that they are that stupid to hang such a brisant political decision as depriving Iran of the possibility to atomic weapons on the fact if BIBI comes or not? Are they going to tell us that they will NOT support the sanctions if BIBI comes? How far will they go with their impertinent interference in Israel’s elections adn what stupidity will they further display?

  2. Unnamed sources are bad. People should know from where the information presented is coming so they can judge how credible it is. Bad things can happen as a result of using unnamed sources, too. Like unnamed sources could tell a New York Times reporter like Judith Miller that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and then the Bush Administration could point to this New York Times story as justification for invading Iraq. Had the public known that the sources used by Judith Miller were people like Scooter Libby and Ahmed Chalabi we could have established how full of crap they were. Yes, unnamed sources are bad. Thanks for spreading the word, Mirabelle.

  3. A few years back Laurel Leff wrote an excellent book called “Buried by the Times” about the appalling lack of coverage and continuous downplaying of the Jewish element to the Nazi persecutions in the Holocaust by the New York Times. I wish someone would write a book about the New York Times coverage of Israel over the decades starting before 1948 when the struggle for a Jewish State was raging and continuing throughout the various wars and up to the present. For the recford I wish Netanyahu would decline the invitation. It is not worth exacerbating the petulant and increasingly vitriolic hostility of the man-child in the White House. Obama will be gone soon enough.

    1. I must say though, at this stage I doubt Netanyahu’s cancelling would even salvage anything. President Obama’s thin skin has already been burned, and he isn’t the kind to forgive. The damage has already been done.
      At least following through means that Congress gets properly briefed on an issue with is very important for America’s interests and security (and is existentially important for Israel’s).
      The only reason to cancel would be if the American people widely see this visit as a slap in the face like Obama does. I don’t perceive that they do, but my finger isn’t exactly on that pulse.

  4. 0bama is a cretin. Like all his supporters at home or abroad..

    If not for affirmative action, he would flip burgers at MD. Still he will get the US Jewish (and not only) support until the trains will start running.

  5. oy. apologies to the Israeli people from the American people. again. you do understand that we don’t agree with Obama about Israel (and a whole bunch of other things) and that our Congress backs us up, right?

    it’s still not good that Obama seems to be trying to singlehandedly destroy the US-Israeli alliance. the good news is he’s only got 2 more years. the bad news is that those are the same two years in which Iran will be going nuclear.

    whoever the Gossip Girl is, her comments have been approved by Obama. you better believe if he was unhappy about this we would know about it. he isn’t. in fact, I would not be surprised if the “chickenshi*t” comment was a direct quote from the president or Valerie Jarrett, his Iranian-born evil twin and co-president.

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