"Mr. President, Funny You Should Mention the Book of Esther..."

Update - see below

Arutz Sheva:

US President Barack Obama reportedly on Monday gave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu a copy of the Book of Esther in honor of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which is celebrated on Thursday and Friday this week.

Netanyahu took the opportunity to draw a parallel between the narrative in the Book of Esther – wherein the wicked Haman seeks to destroy the Jewish people throughout the Persian Empire – with Israel's modern day conflict with Iran..

Iranian leaders – including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – have repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state, referring to Israel as a "one bomb state."

Iran is geographically Persia and the Iranians are descendants of the ancient Persians.

The exchange took place at the end of the meeting between the two leaders, which lasted approximately 3 hours.

Update:

AP, quoted by VIN, says that it was Netanyahu who gave the book to Obama.