Obama Belatedly Visits Israel in Fifth Year of His Term

He is going there almost as a tourist and, in addition, as someone very disliked.

“Sometimes I have this fantasy that I can put on a disguise, wear a fake mustache, and I can wander through Tel Aviv and go to a bar and have a conversation. The last time I was there as a senator, I still had the option of wandering through the Old City of Jerusalem. That option becomes much trickier once you’re actually president,” Barack Obama confessed recently on Israeli television’s Channel 2.

Indeed, wandering through bars becomes much trickier, but not only for logistical reasons. A survey commissioned by the daily newspaper Maariv before the visit says that 17 percent of Israelis “hate” the U.S. president, 19 percent “don’t respect him, but don’t hate him” 32 percent “don’t like, but respect him” and 9 percent consider themselves “indifferent.” Only 10 percent “like” Obama.

He’s been building such a reputation for four years. He flew to Cairo and delivered a speech to the Muslims in 2009 at the beginning of his first term. He visited Israel neither then nor later, which was interpreted as an affront by most Israelis. What is worse, he demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevent the expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

The relationship between the two leaders is very cool. The cause is not only divergences concerning the Palestinian issue but also Obama’s absolute lack of interest concerning Israel’s plans to attack nuclear facilities in Iran. The U.S. president is insisting that the proper method of putting pressure on the ayatollahs is the application of sanctions — e.g., last year he convinced the European Union not to buy petroleum from Tehran.

In the meantime, Netanyahu wrote in his book already in 1995 that Iran will be capable of producing an atomic bomb in three to five years. He’s been warning for a couple of years that this menace will hang over the world — especially over Israel — in a couple of months. And he’s threatening air raids more and more openly.

Obama’s last “sin” was nominating Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense. He is regarded by some people as an anti-Semite because he once said that the Jewish lobby intimidates many people in Washington.

All this has led to a situation in which, as The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman observes, Obama is the first American president in history who is going to Israel as a tourist. His visit won’t bear any fruit; no one wants to listen to him there.

Of course, there is a lot of exaggeration in this statement. Obama and Netanyahu are stuck with each other. The interests of both countries still coincide, and mutual affection between the two nations is constant, regardless of the leaders’ difficult relationship. They both must establish a common strategy regarding Iran. The civil war in Syria, which has already claimed over 70,000 victims and threatens the stability of the Middle East, has also united them. They will surely talk about these two matters.

When it comes to the everlasting Palestinian issue, it’s been ruined for some time: Netanyahu is not going to become involved in any peace talks, and Obama, overwhelmed by more important problems in the U.S., gave up on this question a long time ago. He’ll go to Ramallah, capital of the Palestinian Authority, only to take a banal photo with president Mahmoud Abbas.

What’s interesting is that there’s a hint for Obama as to how he could, in spite of so many sins, gain favor with Israelis and maybe even win their hearts. He could bring with him Jonathan Pollard, the American sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for Israel. As many as 79 percent of Israelis would like Obama to exit the presidential airplane Air Force One with a pardoned Pollard by his side. Only as a duo could they set off to the bars of Tel Aviv without fear.