President Obama is jetting off to Israel for a three-day visit that many think is an attempt to mend fences with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
I hope he can do so and would suggest to him that he simply reiterate what he’s said repeatedly in the United States: that this country’s ties to Israel are as strong as they’ve ever been.
Obama has made it abundantly clear throughout his first term as president that our commitment to Israel’s security never will waver, at least while he is president. And yet conservatives refuse to believe him, accusing him of kowtowing to Israel’s Muslim neighbors.
I’ve had a bit of exposure to Israeli mistrust of Barack Obama. I spent five weeks in Israel in the spring of 2009, just a few months after Obama took office. I was a working journalist at the time and the question came to me repeatedly from my Israeli hosts: Do you think Barack Obama is our friend? I answered “yes.” But the response to my answer almost always was followed by a statement that Israelis don’t quite “trust” Obama the way they trusted his predecessor, George W. Bush, who many Israelis consider to be one of their best friends.
Perhaps the president’s rhetoric hasn’t been as forceful as Bush’s. He has sought a more nuanced approach to settling the centuries-long dispute between Israelis and their neighbors. The Obama administration has opposed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
But Obama has declared his intention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; his administration has been killing Islamic terrorists left and right (e.g., Osama bin Laden); and the president himself has stated that this nation will not abandon Israel if warfare ever were to erupt.
I wish Barack Obama well as he embarks on this journey. Moreover, I hope he can restore trust between two long-standing allies. I have faith he’ll succeed.