Obama Debuts in Israel

Barack Obama arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and greeted the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with a resounding “shalom.” The word is a form of greeting, but it also means “peace.” It was a good synopsis of the agenda that brought him to Israel for the first time in four long years in office. Although the U.S. president is not seeking to resurrect his failed peace plan, the purpose of this trip is to make peace with the Israelis, who do not consider him a good friend of their country, and to ensure his support of Israel against threats from Syria and Iran.

Obama’s relationship with Netanyahu has been, frankly, bad. For starters, he chose to visit Egypt during his first term and was in favor of a two state solution for Jews and Palestinians. Israel’s response was to further expand and settle in zones of conflict, freezing one of the foundations of the peace plan. There are already half a million settlers in the territory invaded by Israeli troops in 1967. To make the message even clearer, Netanyahu reorganized his cabinet on Monday, opening the new legislature and appointing notorious supporters of the settlements to key positions.

So, on the three occasions that Obama will have the opportunity to speak with the head of the host government, they will not focus on Palestine, but on the danger of chemical weapons from the chaotic civil war in Syria moving into the region and on preventing Iran from acquiring the necessary elements to build an atomic bomb. The visitor made it clear that Israel has Washington’s full backing and that Washington is willing to take action in Syria to prevent the dispersion of chemical weapons, while working diplomatically to stop Iran.

The U.S. president also included in his itinerary a brief visit to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to explain, among other things, that there is time to revive the dialogue between the two neighbors, separated by an ancient enmity. If Obama is not popular in Israel, his bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan have made him equally appealing to Arab countries. Maybe that’s why their expectations are reduced to hearing what they have to say to him. He has brought this upon himself.