The eagle has landed

US President Barack Obama arrived in Israel on Wednesday to much pomp and circumstance and the Hebrew press analyzes every moment of the historic visit, albeit with varying levels of enthusiasm.

The most excited paper about the visit is Yedioth Ahronoth (which even added American and Israeli flags to its masthead) whose front-page headline is “A warm embrace.” The opening piece of its 21 pages of coverage is an opinion piece by Sima Kadmon in which she discusses how successfully Obama turned on the charm from the beginning. “A little informality, a joke, a few words in Hebrew and we are falling in love with a man who looks like he really likes us,” she writes. Kadmon breaks down the real reason Obama is here. “Obama is here to build up positive relations and trust. If he is planning to pressure Netanyahu into a peace process, nothing will happen without trust. Obama learned this in his first term.”

Yedioth also includes a timetable of Obama’s upcoming schedule for Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s itinerary includes a quick trip around the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, a visit to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and the key speech of Obama’s visit at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center.

Israel Hayom matches Yedioth’s style and amount of coverage (22 pages) and its front-page headline describes the visit as “A visit of hugs.” Commentator Boaz Bismuth takes that idea and runs with in his column, “Hug therapy.” Bismuth, like Kadmon, has been impressed so far by Obama’s speeches and charm, and thinks that now is the perfect time to repair relations between Netanyahu and Obama. “Certainly they can work together. They won another term almost simultaneously, and both need to work with people who are not their natural political partners. Obama and Netanyahu are sufficiently experienced to understand that to be successful you have to turn over a new leaf.”

Haaretz gets right to the point with its front-page headline, “Obama in Israel: We’ll protect you.” Haaretz’s editor-in-chief, Aluf Benn, writes a special opinion piece on the visit and says that Obama’s visit is to buy the president time as he decides on how to solve the problems of the world. “Obama has no clearcut solution to the Iranian problem, or to the disintegration of Syria. He’s also finding it hard to bring his influence to bear on the political crisis in Egypt,” writes Benn. Obama’s plan seems to be to charm Israel into submission, and Benn thinks it might work. “With every passing day, Israel becomes less capable of taking out Iran’s nuclear facilities by itself, while its dependence on the United States for military superiority just keeps growing.”

Maariv has the smallest amount of Obama coverage but like the other papers, it leads with an opinion piece. Shalom Yerushalmi isn’t convinced that Obama has Israel’s best interest at heart in his piece, “Too good to be true.” Yerushalmi writes that underneath all the charms and the smiles, there are serious disagreements about Iran, Syria, and the Palestinians. He goes on to say Obama has much more in common with Peres than Netanyahu. “I suspect that Obama would like to switch the positions of the Israeli leaders,” Yerushalmi writes, “with Peres as prime minister and Netanyahu as president.”

Plants and jokes

Obama’s first day in Israel was an eventful one and Israel Hayom highlights the meeting of the two presidents, Obama and Peres, at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, where Obama planted a tree with Peres. However, as Israel Hayom points out, the Agriculture Ministry will check the tree, known as the “Tree of Friendship.” The ministry checks all new plants to ensure that they don’t pose a threat to the ecosystem or agriculture in Israel.

Yedioth includes an article on the large welcoming committee at Ben Gurion Airport which included the brand-new ministers of Netanyahu’s government. “The ministers were excited; they just were sworn in two days ago, and made a great effort to grab Obama’s attention,” the paper writes. The article highlights some of the interactions between Obama and the ministers, including playful banter between Lapid and Obama, and a crack about Amir Peretz’s graying mustache.

The region at large

Haaretz’s front page also includes an update on the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria earlier this week. “A difference of opinions in the US government: Chemical weapons may have been used in Syria,” reads the headline about the deteriorating Syrian situation. The article goes on to highlight the confusion over the event that occurred on Tuesday where tens of people were killed in city of Aleppo and both sides traded accusations of guilt for the attack. For his part, Obama said at a Wednesday evening press conference that his government was looking into the reports.

While the hoopla of the Obama visit dominates news coverage, Maariv takes a step back to look into some of the new Cabinet members and committee heads. The paper highlights the appointment of Miri Regev (Likud) to head the Knesset committee on interior affairs. Regev made headlines in May 2012 when she publicly called Sudanese migrants “a cancer.” Regev said of her appointment, “My job is to send them back to their country.” She then added that people have taken her statements out of context and that she will treat everybody like a human being.