Smiles ... 'novel ideas', deep gaps & a 'plan'...

So, Netanyahu gets a prize schedule while Obama gets NOTHING! In the Economist, here:

"Netanyahu, leaves Washington on Tuesday May 19th having notched up what he considers an important success: Obama has set a time limit...."If we can begin discussions soon, shortly after the Iranian elections, we should have a fairly good sense by the end of the year as to whether they are moving in the right direction.”

....Netanyahu told the press that America would soon propose a new peace initiative for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This, he said, would try to engage other Arab states in the peacemaking effort, and urge them to normalise their relations with the Jewish state.

While plainly pleased with the newly announced American deadline on talks with Iran, Mr Netanyahu kept carefully vague about what would happen if the deadline passed and the country's nuclear programme continued. He praised Mr Obama for having said that "all options were on the table". The president, in fact, pointedly refrained from rehearsing that formula in his comments in the Oval Office. He said, “We are not foreclosing a range of steps, including much stronger international sanctions, in assuring that Iran understands that we are serious.” At his briefing Mr Netanyahu added his own oracular line: "Israel reserves the right to act in self-defence." He contended that these veiled references to military action contributed to the potential efficacy of diplomatic and economic measures designed to persuade Iran to forgo the bomb.....

Mr Netanyahu leaves Washington without having subscribed to the “two-state” solution even though Mr Obama vigorously reasserted, in private and in public, America's commitment to this policy. “I have said before and I will repeat again,” Mr Obama said, “that it is I believe in the interest not only of the Palestinians, but also the Israelis and the United States and the international community to achieve a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians are living side by side in peace and security.”

Mr Netanyahu argued that Palestinian statehood was a matter of “terminology” while what was important was “substance, not terminology”. He wanted the Palestinians to rule themselves, eventually, but self-rule would have to be circumscribed by Israel's security requirements. They would not, for instance, be allowed to have an army. He spoke as though such issues have not been the stuff of negotiations for close to two decades. He appeared to ignore understandings reached by past Israeli governments on a demilitarisation regime for a Palestinian state....

Mr Obama asserted that "settlements have to be stopped". Mr Netanyahu was unrattled. The subject would continue to be discussed, he said later. Regarding Israel's longstanding commitment, honoured in the breach, to dismantle the dozens of settlement-outposts on the West Bank which it itself defines as illegal, Mr Netanyahu produced a novel argument: Israel dismantled all its settlements in the Gaza Strip, but the Palestinians, instead of dismantling terrorist infrastructures, as they were committed to do, installed the terrorist movement Hamas as masters of Gaza..."