Actually, that headline from Gateway Pundit minimizes the insult. If he had merely said, "Arrange our schedules so I will not have to dine with the Israeli Prime Minister," it would have been a snub. What he did instead was a blatant refusal of hospitality, while the Prime Minister was a guest in his house.
Benjamin Netanyahu was left to stew in a White House meeting room for over an hour after President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of tense talks to have supper with his family, it emerged on Thursday. The snub marked a fresh low in US-Israeli relations and appeared designed to show Mr Netanyahu how low his stock had fallen in Washington after he refused to back down in a row over Jewish construction in east Jerusalem.The extent of the insult in refusing to offer food and water is... well, it is one of the deepest insults possible in human society. It is the refusal of hospitality, one of the few values that is universally felt among men. In the Middle East, the insult has especially deep resonance. It is normally done only to those with whom one is planning to kill; in many cultures it is at least a declaration that you don't care if they live or die. Compare with this story:
… (Mr. Obama) immediately presented Mr Netanyahu with a list of 13 demands designed both to the end the feud with his administration and to build Palestinian confidence ahead of the resumption of peace talks. Key among those demands was a previously-made call to halt all new settlement construction in east Jerusalem.
When the Israeli prime minister stalled, Mr Obama rose from his seat declaring: “I’m going to the residential wing to have dinner with Michelle and the girls.” As he left, Mr Netanyahu was told to consider the error of his ways. “I’m still around,” Mr Obama is quoted by Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper as having said.
Saladin invited the king [Guy] to sit beside him, and when Arnat [Raynald] entered in his turn, he seated him next to his king and reminded him of his misdeeds. "How many times have you sworn an oath and violated it? How many times have you signed agreements you have never respected?" Raynald answered through a translator: "Kings have always acted thus. I did nothing more." During this time King Guy was gasping with thirst, his head dangling as though drunk, his face betraying great fright. Saladin spoke reassuring words to him, had cold water brought, and offered it to him. The king drank, then handed what remained to Raynald, who slaked his thirst in turn. The sultan then said to Guy: "You did not ask permission before giving him water. I am therefore not obliged to grant him mercy."...Saladin was an honorable man, whether friend or foe: it is clear he knew what he was doing, and wanted to ensure everyone understood that he was not violating the ethic. One doubts the President thought that deeply about what he was doing, or has any notion of how men of honor might receive the insult. Nevertheless, the ethic is universal, and he cannot but have known he was doing something terribly wrong to his guest.
[Saladin] then advanced before [Reynald], sword in hand, and struck him between the neck and the shoulder-blade.
Regardless of what he knew, however, the cultures in the Middle East will read this according to their own tradition. It will be taken as an indication that the President refused the Israelis water in his tent; and that is a sign that will have consequences.
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