evidently Eleanor Holmes Norton was there..... making SELFIES...and things just got out of hand....
Just in from Joel rosenburg’s e-mail:
Something curious is happening in the Middle East.
Amidst President Obama’s repeated moves to withdraw American military power and influence from the Middle East and “pivot” to Asia, ....three regional leaders in the epicenter are forming a quiet, unexpected but fiercely determined alliance....To protect their people against two existential threats, one posed by the Shia Radical Islamists of Iran, the other posed by the Sunni Radical Islamists of ISIS.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu;
Jordan’s King Abdullah II; and
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
They are meeting secretly. They are talking regularly by phone, as well as with other leaders in the region from Saudi Arabia to the Gulf. Their senior advisors are also in regular contact, coordinating moves to counter their most serious enemies...... They are NOT waiting for Washington. Indeed, they often see the White House and State Department as less than helpful, and sometimes opposed to — or not truly understanding — their national and shared interests.
Two U.S. officials told me of a meeting they had with President el-Sisi in Cairo last year. The Egyptian leader told them he had a better working relationship with Netanyahu than with President Obama.
Netanyahu, King Abdullah and el-Sisi have come to realize that President Obama and his administration do not fully appreciate the magnitude of the threat, and that the Obama team is not fully committed to taking decisive action to neutralize the threat.