The Washington Post Checkpoint Jerusalem blog reports on an official Maariv statement that it did not get permission from Obama to publish his Western Wall note:

[A] Maariv editor called back to read an official statement:

"Maariv received the note last Thursday and, after realizing it contained no personal or intimate content, decided to publish it. Contrary to the response attributed to Maariv in a few media outlets in Israel, Maariv never requested permission from the Obama campaign to publish the note, nor was granted permission afterwards."

This means that Haaretz's contrary assertion, which also purported to quote an official Maariv response, appears to have been flat wrong (unless there's been a stupendous mixup at Maariv). Does anyone have more perspective on this, especially from the Israeli press? Sounds like Haaretz made a very serious mistake, unless Maariv did — a pretty major journalistic blunder by a top national newspaper.