The announcement of the itinerary of President Obama’s visit next week to Israel has produced a predictable kerfuffle. With every possible site rife with symbolism, the omission of some places of interest and the inclusion of others is the sort of thing to send the already hyperactive sensitivities of Israel’s supporters into overdrive. Given the history of the past four years during which the president has lost few opportunities to slight Israel and its government, it’s understandable that the decisions about the trip will be examined with a fine-tooth comb and that each element would be suspected as yet another example of Obama’s hostility.
But while I’ll admit I raised my eyebrows about some of the choices, carping about the schedule misses the point. The only real symbolism of this visit is that he will be there. Though there are strong disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem on some vital issues, the Obama trip remains a nightmare for Israel-bashers. There has been no U.S. president who has been less sympathetic to Israel than Obama in a generation. Yet he will be journeying to the Jewish state to unequivocally pledge his nation’s support for its security. If the tone of the foreign policy of his first term was set by his 2009 Cairo address where he pointedly snubbed Israel and treated the complaints of the Palestinians as morally equivalent to the Holocaust, it is to be hoped that the sight of showing respect for symbols of Jewish sovereignty over the land will be just as influential.
The most controversial aspect of the Obama itinerary is the decision for him to drop the seemingly obligatory visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. That smacks of a lack of respect or support for Israel’s claims to the Old City of Jerusalem as well as to Judaism’s holiest site. That he will go to the Church of the Nativity in Palestinian Authority-controlled Bethlehem while also avoiding any Muslim sites will also raise the hackles of some.
The other sore point will be the fact that the president will not address the Knesset but will instead give a major address to an audience largely composed of students—as was the case in Cairo—at Jerusalem’s convention center (though students from Ariel in the West Bank were not invited).
Obama’s decision to speak at a religious university in Cairo was fitting because it was the perfect symbol of Egyptian society. But the Knesset is living proof of Israel’s status as the sole real democracy in the region. But given the president’s belief that he knows what’s good for Israel better than its democratically elected leaders, it’s hardly surprising that he would have little interest in paying homage to that institution. However, to be fair, it is also possible that the motivation for the snub had more to do with Obama’s notoriously thin skin than his contempt for the country’s representative government. Unlike Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was repeatedly cheered to the echo when he addressed a joint meeting of Congress in 2011, the president knows there is every chance that he will be heckled or jeered by some members of the raucous and unruly parliament.
That said there will still be plenty for friends of Israel to cheer in the visit.
Obama will not only go to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial, he will also make a stop to Israel’s version of Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath on the tomb of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement. That will be a telling rebuke to the increasing chorus of those who wish to delegitimize Israel and its reason for being. Also important will be a visit to the Israel Museum where he will view the Dead Sea Scrolls, a telling reminder of Jewish history and claims to the land that no amount of Palestinian revisionism and propaganda can erase. This, as much as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s desire to show the president the new high-tech industries, helps establish the justice of Israel’s cause.
One element of the trip will be entirely self-serving. Obama will inspect an Iron Dome anti-missile battery. That will be a not-so-subtle reminder of his attempt to claim sole credit for the creation and funding of the vital defense system. However, Obama won’t bother to visit an Iron dome at its normal station but will instead take a look at one that will be towed to Ben-Gurion Airport to save him time.
Obama’s predilection for moral grandstanding and condescension is well known, and that means there is every chance he will say some things that will offend Israelis and give comfort to their enemies. But no matter what he says, his long awaited trip tangibly reaffirms the alliance between Israel and the United States that can’t be ignored.
For all of the tension between the two countries in the last four years and whatever disputes will ensue in the next four, even Barack Obama feels compelled to pay tribute to Israel and some of its most important national symbols. Those in the Muslim and Arab worlds as well as in Europe and elsewhere who have been encouraged by the distance that the Obama administration has sought to create between the U.S. and Israel will be upset by his presence in the country no matter what Obama says.
"…his 2009 Cairo address where he pointedly snubbed Israel…." n nFrom the Cairo speech: n n"America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied. n n"Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and antisemitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve."
Clarifcation: "…(though students from Ariel UNIVERSITY in the West Bank were DELIBERATELY EXCLUDED not invited). n nI think Obama is going to be surprised by the other students in that audience unless somehow they have been hand picked by Haaretz
nMay they listen in silence, no smiles, polite applause at the end, while the Ariel University protesters make their point outside. n nI thought the decision to drop Ramallah and solely visit the Church of the Nativity (are there any palestinian Christians still available for that photo op?) is a good one. Arab Christians are in need of the right to live in peace wherever they want on 'muslim soil'. n nI can not think of a single governing congress in any democracy where Obama would get a standing ovation, except maybe the US Senate, and not sure that they would stand up for him now. n nCome on! Name a country where he would get the parliament tingling! I can't. n n
"As for the Church of the Nativity, the official said, visiting it is appropriate since the basilica, which dates from 327 A.D. and is believed to be the oldest continuously operating Christian church in the world, has profound meaning for millions of Christians. It also symbolizes the rights of Christian minorities in the Arab world, he said. " n nOf course, he neglected to mention that Muslim terrorists, aided by the International Solidarity Movement, took over the church at gunpoint in the late 1990's, taking monks and other Christians hostage, starving and beating them, and desecrating the church by using it as a latrine. He also omits that the Christians were freed only because IDF soldiers at the risk of their own lives stormed the church and captured the terrorists — for which Israel was condemned by some, including a US Congressman.
2002. But absolutely right.
Thanks. Forgot it was that late,just remembered which office space I was in at the time – which placed it between early 1998 and late 2002.
Exactly. He denied millenia of Jewish history, the existence of a Jewish community in Israel dating back 700 years or so, and endorsed the Muslim slander that Jews are an alien presence imposed on the indigneous Arabs by imperial Europe out of guilt over a holocaust in which Muslims were blameless and uninvolved.
Tobin said Obama "snubbed" Israel in the speech. He clearly did not. The fact that my remark got so many negative responses shows how mindlessly anti-Obama the Commentary crowd is. Or maybe they just don't know the meaning of the word "snubbed."
Or maybe you don't know the meaning of the word. You seem to think that 'snub' means to ignore or treat coldly. That is indeed one meaning but not the only meaning. Having been contradicted in your pathetic defense of Obama's speech, you are now backing away from saying the speech was okay and are quibbling over Tobin's choice of verb. Not only pathetic on your part, but still Mistaken. n n1. To ignore or behave coldly toward; slight. n2. To dismiss, turn down, or frustrate the expectations of. n n , snubs , snubbing , snubbed n1. to insult (someone) deliberately n2. to stop or check the motion of (a boat, horse, etc) by taking turns of a rope or cable around a post or other fixed object n nObama's speech frustrated the expectation that he would not endorse the false and racist Muslim narrative of Israel as an alien presence imposed upon the blameless Arabs and Muslims by European imperialists acting out of their guilt for the Holocaust. n n nmid-14c., "to check, reprove, rebuke," from O.N. snubba "to curse, scold, reprove." Meaning "treat coldly" appeared early 18c. The adj. meaning "short and turned up" (of the nose) is first recorded 1724. The connecting notion is of being "cut short."
"The most controversial aspect of the Obama itinerary is the decision for him to drop the seemingly obligatory visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. That smacks of a lack of respect or support for Israel’s claims to the Old City of Jerusalem as well as to Judaism’s holiest site." n nCould this decision have anything to do with the recent threats by Israel's supposed partners for peace to commit violence if Obama visits the Temple Mount and the Wall?
Will a photo with the new Miss Israel (allegedly now scheduled for a dinner) do anything to change the meme that Zionism = racism? Will Obama promise her that he will ask the host nation of Miss World pageant, Indonesia, to guarantee she will be allowed to enter on her Israeli passport? n nalso, the US Embassy in Tel Aviv is now making excuses that they did not mean to boycott students from Ariel University. JewishPress tried to explain the explanation
n n n
Personally, I've always found it offputting that visiting non-Jews "prayed" at the Western Wall or left messages in the wall.
I think Obama does most of his praying in front of a mirror. n nRemember the flap when Obama's note was retrieved from the wall during his last visit and published? That note sounded as though it had been written by a publicist. I've always wondered whether his campaign had anything to do with that incident. n nBut it raised such a scandal (and rightly so) about the privacy of written prayers at the wall, that it could be hard to picture such a thing happening again. If I were a cynic, I'd wonder whether he left the wall out of his itinerary because there was no chance to leave another note to be deliberately leaked to the press as a way to publicize his awesomeness and humility.
Why would he go to the wall? To him that's palestinian territory.
Israel and Palestinians are the main victim of the Palestinian refugee hoax created by the West when they fabricated the UNRWA.