From Politico:
Israeli media laud Obama ‘bear hug’
By KATIE GLUECK | 3/22/13 5:21 PM EDT
If the coverage in the famously ferocious Israeli press is any indication, President Barack Obama’s first presidential trip to Israel was a smashing success.
“U.S. President Barack Obama may well define his Israel visit with ‘Veni Vidi Vici’: I came, I saw, I conquered,” declared Alon Pinkas, writing in the influential liberal newspaper Ha’aretz. “Mission: Accomplished. Goals: Achieved. Media coverage?
Couldn’t be better. Expectations? Reasonable. Deliverables? Maybe down the road, maybe not.”
In the politically centrist Times of Israel, David Horovitz called a Thursday address to a youthful Israeli crowd at a Jerusalem convention center a “‘reset’ of Obama’s personal relationship with Israel.”
“Barack Obama, widely perceived by Israelis before this visit as a cold president, a leader dutifully supporting Israel but lacking any real empathy for it, transformed that image in the course of the powerhouse central address of his visit here on Thursday afternoon — for the 1,000 ecstatic young Israelis in Jerusalem’s International Conference Center, and doubtless for many, many Israelis watching on live television nationwide,” Horovitz wrote.
At the beginning of Obama’s swing through Israel this week, he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted a joint press conference. The two leaders have a relationship that, until this trip, was often characterized as frosty — but during their Wednesday joint appearance, the two traded jokes and offered warm words for each other.
“’What if’ questions are never constructive, but one cannot help but ask how much frustration, aggravation and anger would have been prevented in both Israel and the US had Obama made this trip, and adopted this approach, at the beginning of his presidency,” wrote Herb Keinon in the right-tilting Jerusalem Post.
“Living in a neighborhood, and even in a world, in which there are those who have not exactly accepted our right or legitimacy to be here, having the most powerful man in the world come and give us a public bear hug is very important,” Keinon wrote, in his piece headlined “Obama, he had us at ‘Shalom.’” “And Obama gave us that.”
In an opinion piece published in Israel Hayom — a publication launched by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson — Dan Margalit also praised Obama’s trip.
“Given the shower of love U.S. President Barack Obama bestowed upon Israel when he arrived on Wednesday, there were some who expected that his speech in Jerusalem on Thursday would be so friendly that afterward it would be suitable for him to become a minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government,” he wrote facetiously. “Of course, this did not occur and there were some who were disappointed. But, in fact, Obama’s trip to Israel has significantly strengthened the relationship between the two countries and their leaders.”
The Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv was one of many Israeli publications to have a large section dedicated to “Obama in Israel,” while publications including Ha’aretz and the Times of Israel had an active live blog, underscoring the country’s fascination with the president and his trip.
On Friday, Israeli publications from across the political spectrum ran headlines off a remark Obama made at a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum, that served as a nod to the many Israelis who view their country as a safe haven for the Jewish people.
“Here on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear,” Obama said. “The state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but in the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel the Holocaust will never happen again.”
“There wasn’t one Israeli button that Obama didn’t push during the speech and throughout his entire visit: from Holocaust to redemption, anxiety to bravery, victimhood to victory, ancient rights to start-up nation,” applauded Chemi Shalev in Ha’aretz. Shalev added later, “In this regard, Obama will henceforth be a much tougher rival for his right-wing conservative critics.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/0...237.html?hp=f1
