Israel Evades 'Ambush' at Nuclear Summit

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PM Benjamin Netanyahu decided at the last moment to cancel his attendance

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided at the last moment to cancel his attendance at this week's 47-nation nuclear security summit in Washington, a great deal of speculation ensued about the bad blood between him and Barack Obama and about whether the United States president might allow the conference to turn into a forum for criticism of Israel's nuclear program.

That possibility was alarmingly real for the Israelis. "I think that the sense amongst the Israeli delegation coming back from [Washington] DC right now is that they fell into a trap."

This was the comment three weeks ago of prominent Israeli journalist, Ehud Yaari, writing in Foreign Affairs after Netanyahu's most recent visit to the White House.

"The general sense in Israel right now is that the prime minister was sorely humiliated by President Obama."

Compounding Israeli fears, a number of Arab states had threatened to bring up the issue of Israeli nuclear weapons, which are widely believed to exist but never officially confirmed.

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