(Haaretz)......The physical toll of his first months as prime minister were clearly noticeable in the course of Netanyahu's European tour. At the news conference with Berlusconi both mean appeared tired, each for his own reasons. A few hours before taking off for Rome on Monday Netanyahu was still dealing with efforts to defuse the tussle between Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer over who is responsible for supervising the wages of senior officials at the central bank. Time management is a critical issue for Netanyahu.
Netanyahu went to Europe with two goals in mind: To put his failed trip to Washington behind him through warm hugs from two of his closest friends in Europe, and to market the message of his Bar-Ilan speech to the European political leadership and to European public opinion.
Relatively speaking, he was successful. Berlusconi and Sarkozy accepted the principle of a Jewish state and did not fall off their chairs over the demand that a future Palestinian state be demilitarized. The French call Netanyahu "the American Bibi" and they were actually surprised that he would end up at loggerheads with President Barack Obama.
