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The Great Obama Shoe Photo Debate: What Was He Trying to Say?
Arutz Sheva [Israel National News] ^ | 06/12/09 | Gil Ronen and Hana Levi Julian

Posted on 05/26/2010 3:09:29 PM PDT by Jewbacca

A White House photograph of U.S. President Barack Obama with his feet on his desk while speaking on the phone with Binyamin Netanyahu has turned into a news story in own right, with reporters in Israel and elsewhere speculating that it was meant to send a message of disrespect. The photograph, snapped by White House photographer Pete Sousa, was sent out to news media earlier this week. The ripples began with an article by a political correspondent for the Hebrew-language newspaper Haaretz who noted the photograph and interpreted its meaning in a way that is consistent with the newspaper’s pro-Palestinian Authority position: A photo released by the White House, which shows Obama talking on the phone with Netanyahu on Monday, speaks volumes: The president is seen with his legs up on the table, his face stern and his fist clenched, as though he were dictating to Netanyahu: "Listen up and write 'Palestinian state' a hundred times. That's right, Palestine, with a P." As an enthusiast of Muslim culture, Obama surely knows there is no greater insult in the Middle East than pointing the soles of one's shoes at another person. Indeed, photos of other presidential phone calls depict Obama leaning on his desk, with his feet on the floor. The story was then picked up by at least one Israeli TV newscaster, who in turn was quoted by Howard Arenstein of the World Watch news blog on CBS news. Israeli TV newscasters Tuesday night interpreted a photo taken Monday in the Oval Office of President “Obama talking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an ‘insult’ to Israel,” Arenstein reported.

(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: islamist; israel; obama
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To: silverleaf

If the Muslims saw the picture, then THEY got dissed, not Netanyahu because he was on the phone.


21 posted on 05/26/2010 4:28:12 PM PDT by FrdmLvr ( VIVA la SB 1070!)
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To: MagUSNRET
Actually in Arab culture one of the worse insult is to display the bottom of your shoe to someone.

I remember once a diplomat by mistake crossed their leg while sitting in a chair facing one of the sheiks.

They had to hustle the guy out of the room before an international incident occurred.

22 posted on 05/26/2010 4:35:59 PM PDT by mware (F-R-E-E, that spells free, Free Republic.com baby.)
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To: Nonstatist

I hadn’t seen it.


23 posted on 05/26/2010 4:39:10 PM PDT by lonestar (Better Obama picks his nose than our pockets!)
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To: Yehuda

24 posted on 05/26/2010 4:42:17 PM PDT by Bean Counter (Will the last American to leave California please bring the flag??)
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To: Retired Greyhound

“If I recall, Bush did it all the time, too.”

In fact Ford, Bush and Obama all have had pictures taken with their feet on the desk in the oval office. Other Presidents may have been guilty of this as well, but no photographer seems to have caught them in the act.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/photos/desk.asp


25 posted on 05/26/2010 4:43:45 PM PDT by Mila
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To: FrdmLvr

The picture was released by the WH with the statement that it was obama talking to Netanyahu.

The arabs are high fiving each other.


26 posted on 05/26/2010 4:47:09 PM PDT by silverleaf
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Still relevant but please note the date, 06/12/09

27 posted on 05/26/2010 4:50:38 PM PDT by SJackson (Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided, Barack Hussein Obama)
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To: Mila

Bush’s feet-up photos were not released by the White House with the statement that he was talking to a foreign head of state. Especially one in the Middle East whose enemies know the shoe sole being shown by the muslim POTUS is an insult.

Now, I guess we never did a get a photo of Clinton talking on the phone to a VIP, with Monica’s face in his lap, did we...


28 posted on 05/26/2010 4:51:24 PM PDT by silverleaf
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To: SJackson

But released by the WH again this week, as noted in the Israeli source dated today, at the link


29 posted on 05/26/2010 4:53:59 PM PDT by silverleaf
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To: Jewbacca

What a total a&%!


30 posted on 05/26/2010 5:03:39 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: silverleaf

Well the White House could be that stupid, but I think the date at the top of the page defaults to the current date irrespective of the age of the article. Here’s a link to a blog that posted it in July of 20009.

http://www.zimbio.com/Mumbai+Terrorist+Attacks/articles/sTJfAeWX8L2/Israeli+Report+Update+7+2

I’m not going to look anymore, since it was a stupid, offensive move, meant to demean Bibi, a Jew. Doesn’t matter if they didn’t re-release the photo, his contempt for Bibi is as obvious as the Muslim who threw the shoe at GWB.


31 posted on 05/26/2010 5:06:29 PM PDT by SJackson (Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided, Barack Hussein Obama)
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To: silverleaf

I realize that, BUT still: Netanyahu could not see the bottom of his shoe. The arabs could.


32 posted on 05/26/2010 5:14:15 PM PDT by FrdmLvr ( VIVA la SB 1070!)
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To: silverleaf
The arabs are high fiving each other.

Why? Do Jews find that insulting as well?

33 posted on 05/26/2010 5:22:35 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (9/11/01...NEVER FORGET.)
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To: Jewbacca

Did the WH really have the temerity to rerelease this photo even as Emmanuel was proffering the invitation to Netanyahu from Obama? After the diplomatic upset it caused by its appearance last year, it’s startling to think that someone could be so clueless as to send it out again!


34 posted on 05/26/2010 5:29:32 PM PDT by Mila
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: Jewbacca
Keeping in line with the showing of ones soles of his shoes, is the next picture from the ONE going to be a thumbs up or the old 3 ring sign?
36 posted on 05/26/2010 5:42:07 PM PDT by NY Attitude (Make love not war but be prepared for either.)
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To: Jewbacca
Tried to stick them w/bill. ..Am taking that he did not succeed. Certainly hope not. Now that had to have been a winning moment or two. What crass axxses these people are.

/Had family working in State Dept and it was offered that while there were plenty of 'imperfect' guests visiting around Embassies; NO group was worse than Democrats. Nasty, arrogant and mean kids in a candy store; stealing the Embassy gift shops blind to empty. . .and ripping off the hotels etc ad nauseum. It was the hey day of Clinton 'Reps'./

Do remember, as well, the 'Navy ship' incident whereby they stole almost all the linens/bedding/towels from ship before leaving. If it was not nailed down. . .it was gone. Navy at least, cried 'foul'. . .

37 posted on 05/26/2010 6:02:15 PM PDT by cricket (We ARE the Truman Show)
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To: AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...
related:
38 posted on 05/26/2010 6:26:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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To: Fred Hayek
Count me in too, Mr. Hayek. The bottom of my shoe is the only thing I will ever offer freely to Mr. Obama.

You and I ‘c’ eye to eye on those sitting in our House and I have been wondering of late maybe it was always so.

39 posted on 05/26/2010 7:58:50 PM PDT by forest153 ("There's a snake in my boot!")
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