May 18, 2017

LAUGHINGSTOCK:

Mr. Balagan and mismanagement : Between Comey, leaked intel and American ineptitude in planning for Trump's visit, Israeli papers see (or deftly ignore) swirling chaos of Sharknado proportions (JOSHUA DAVIDOVICH May 18, 2017, Times of Israel)

According to Yedioth's top story, though, there are no plans, but just a "balagan," or total mess, and the only thing set so far is that singer Shiri Maimon will perform for Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a state dinner.

"Trump lands in four days and all the details are far from being finalized; Jerusalem is waiting for answers from Washington and Washington is changing the schedule all the time," the paper reports, noting that the sides haven't been able to come together on whether there will be speeches at the airport or just handshakes, and that's just the start.

Columnist Nadav Eyal christens Trump "Mr. Balagan" and has a laundry list of questions for the way the visit is being handled.

"If the president is already coming, who announced that his important visit to Yad Vashem will be only 15 minutes? What's up with that? And who announced a speech at Masada, a dramatic issue for Israelis, only to cancel it casually? It's true that this is nonsense in the face of more troubling behavior, say exposing of secret Israeli efforts to get intelligence on the Islamic State to the Russians, but there's one word that ties it all together: balagan," he writes. "The Americans have always demonstrated the abilities of a superpower on such visits. Having the fundamentals ready weeks beforehand, well-studied, the Americans looked derisively at Israel's improvisation. Now, it's the other way around: The Israelis are shocked at the Americans' management."

Posted by at May 18, 2017 5:09 AM

  

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