Obama woos the Israelis

President Obama made his first state visit to Israel this week, a three-day trip aimed at smoothing his administration’s sometimes testy relations with the key U.S. ally in the Middle East. Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted each other warmly before turning to talks on the worsening conflict in Syria, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and the stalled peace process with the Palestinians. “I am confident in declaring that our alliance is l’netzach, eternal,” Obama said.

It’s about time for this “charm offensive,” said Amnon Lord in Ma’ariv. Israelis are wary of Obama. We know he could have prevented the Palestinians’ unilateral declaration of statehood at the U.N. last year. And we remember his 2009 Cairo speech, when he cited the Holocaust—rather than 3,000 years of Jewish connection to this land—as the reason for the creation of Israel. That’s why Obama asserted a Zionist position the second he landed in Tel Aviv, saying he was glad to be in “the historic homeland of the Jewish people.”

But a state visit isn’t just about the people, said Janine Zacharia in Slate.com. It’s also an implicit endorsement of the host government, and Netanyahu doesn’t deserve one after backing Mitt Romney for president and defying Obama’s every initiative. Here’s what this “dog-and-pony show” will mean to Bibi: “I can continue to expand settlements, focus solely on Iran, and insult the U.S. president, and he will still come and thank me.”

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Actually, these two have a lot in common, said Peter Beinart in TheDailyBeast.com. Netanyahu fears that standing up to his hard-right base on the settlement issue will cost him his job, while Obama fears that standing up to Netanyahu will cost him support at home. “By refusing to challenge Netanyahu’s approach to the Palestinians, Obama has made it his own.” Both men are betting that the Palestinians will passively accept the status quo—a very dangerous assumption.

On this trip, the Palestinians take a back seat to the more pressing problem of Iran, said Jeffrey Goldberg in TheAtlantic.com. Netanyahu has been pushing for military action to stop Iran’s nuclear program, and he’s not convinced Obama has his back. “There’s a greater chance Netanyahu will remain patient if Obama makes the case for patience in person, and on Netanyahu’s turf.”