As Jordan’s king was praying for the Oval Office floor to swallow him up, Israel’s PM was trying to work out how high the president wanted him to jump. What about the bullies of Hamas?

At last Tuesday’s Oval Office briefing for the media, anticipating a fairly short session given that a full press conference was scheduled for later in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially appeared irritated that reporters were being given time to shout barrages of questions at him and his host, US President Donald Trump.

“I would think that’s about enough,” he said, early in what turned into a 14-minute Q and A. He next accused the Israeli reporters in the room of taking over the event, and then snapped, “I think that I should talk to President Trump, okay?”

Gradually, however, he realized that Trump was relishing the moment and, moreover, was talking about “permanently” removing the entire population of Gaza. If you look at the transcript, you’ll see that Trump dominated the rest of the proceedings, with Netanyahu contentedly taking a back seat.

Flash forward a week, and the foreign leader getting the Oval Office treatment this Tuesday was Jordan’s Abdullah II. Unlike for Netanyahu, for the king the encounter was nightmarish from start to finish.

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