5. Presidents Obama and Sarkozy were caught on a “hot mic” denigrating the Israeli Prime Minister at a summit in 2011
Diplomacy is an art-form, with subtlety, flattery, and nuance key weapons in the arsenal of international relations and as Sir Humphrey Appleby once quipped: “one Prime Minister’s lunch with an ambassador destroys two years of patient diplomacy”. Words and opinions must be carefully guarded, offense limited, and customs adhered to. Unfortunately for Presidents Obama and Sarkozy at a G20 economic summit in Cannes in November 2011, precisely the opposite happened. Unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on in preparation for a joint news conference, the heads of state for the United States and France were overheard criticizing and demeaning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In response to Sarkozy’s comment that “I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar”, President Obama replied, “you’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you!”.
Journalists from Arrest Sur Images listening to the conversation politely agreed to not report on what they had heard, with a total of three minutes of conversation recorded. However, after Reuters and Associated Press began publishing leaked stories of the incident they were forced to corroborate the events as reported. Although Israel sought to dismiss the incident as merely office chat, with officials responding that “everyone talks about everyone. Sometimes even good friends say things about each other, certainly in such competitive professions”, reaffirming that both Obama and Sarkozy were friends of Israel, it is unquestionable that throughout his tenure as American President, Obama’s relationship with the Israeli Prime Minister soured considerably.