Did Netanyahu come out of the talks on top? Not yet

If I were a fly on the wall in the Oval Office when president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closed the door behind them to talk tachlis, I guess that the following happened.

Mr Netanyahu, who has a record of domineering meetings of heads of states (ask Tony Blair), probably started by giving Mr Obama a "we told you so" speech. Indeed, the late Yitzhak Rabin warned about a nuclear Iran as early as 1993, and the world was slow to believe subsequent Israeli leaders when they warned against arming the ayatollahs with nukes.

Then, I guess, Mr Netanyahu might have told the US President that the Iranians have been cunningly bluffing the world, dodging the sanctions and rushing to go nuclear, and that action must be taken now, before it's too late.

Up until that moment, I imagine, Mr Obama would have nodded. It is the habit of Israelis to interpret Anglo-Saxon courtesy as agreeing with everything they say. I'm sure Mr Obama reiterated his promise that "a nuclear Iran is not acceptable". However, if by "action" Mr Netanyahu meant a military attack, Mr Obama, just licking the wounds of Iraq and Afghanistan, and hoping to be re-elected, interprets "action" differently: a variety of measures, including firmer sanctions, maybe a naval blockade and military action only as a very last resort.