THE VISIT – AT 8:43 A.M. ET:   As noted below, the Israeli prime minister visits the White House today, a day after Mr. Obama delivered his speech on the Middle East.  Already there are problems.

The two men don't much like each other.  In a remarkable slap, someone leaked to The New York Times a personal insult delivered by the president about the prime minister:

By all accounts, they do not trust each other. President Obama has told aides and allies that he does not believe that Mr. Netanyahu will ever be willing to make the kind of big concessions that will lead to a peace deal.

The assumption here is that the Israelis must make the concessions while dealing with a Palestinian movement that would like to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. 

Wait, there's more:

For his part, Mr. Netanyahu has complained that Mr. Obama has pushed Israel too far — a point driven home during a furious phone call with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday morning, just hours before Mr. Obama’s speech, during which the prime minister reacted angrily to the president’s plan to endorse Israel’s pre-1967 borders for a future Palestinian state.

That is news.  We didn't know about the Clinton call, which apparently was also leaked to The Times.   This isn't shaping up to be a cordial visit.  Mr. Obama sometimes feels more comfortable with enemies of the United States than with allies.

There is a history here, and not a good one:

From one of their first meetings, at the King David Hotel on July 23, 2008, when Mr. Obama, then the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, visited Israel, the two men have struck, at most, an intellectual bond. Mr. Netanyahu, as the leader of Israel’s conservative Likud Party, was far more comfortable with the Republican Party in the United States than with Mr. Obama, the son of a Muslim man from Kenya whose introduction to the Arab-Israeli conflict was initially framed by discussions with pro-Palestinian academics.

That's a key point.  You can be sure the Israeli Mossad has given Mr. Netanyahu a detailed picture of Mr. Obama, and the picture painted cannot be one an Israeli leader would like:  Mr. Obama spent an inordinate amount of time hanging around with leftist "intellectuals," including the militantly anti-American and anti-Israel Bill Ayers. 

Welcome to Washington, Mr. Netanyahu.  If you feel awkward, remember that the British prime minister got an even worse reception.

May 20, 2011