Bieber makes waves in Israel

MIDDLE EAST DIPLOMACY: You can’t make this stuff up, folks. Plans for a meeting between Israeli and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justin Bieber have been called off, with the sides differing over why, the N.Y. Times reports. A Netanyahu spokesman said that his office had been approached with the idea of a meeting, and that the prime minister had been “open to that.” The PM’s office then suggested including children from southern Israel whose communities have been under rocket fire from Gaza in recent days. “Sadly,” the spokesman said, “that proved impossible,” suggesting that Bieber’s reps had turned down the idea. But a person involved in arranging the meeting on behalf of Bieber said the discussions had been called off for purely logistical reasons and that it was more a case of miscommunication than anything else. Said a spokesman for Bieber: “Justin welcomes the chance to meet with kids facing difficult circumstances, regardless of their background, and in fact, he had already invited children from the Sderot area,” referring to the Israeli town near the Gaza border, to attend his concert tonight in Tel Aviv. (4/14a)