Channel 2 analyst predicts no peace initiatives during visit

At the airport, Matti Friedman reports: “There’s a real party atmosphere here — 100s of reporters, officials in suits, a few US soldiers in uniform. Lots of flags. They’ve set up a tent where reporters are given coffee, cookies and avocado sandwiches.

Channel 2’s wise analyst Ehud Ya’ari says this visit is a “correction” to Obama’s Cairo trip four years ago, when he “reached out to the Muslim Brotherhood.” Here in Israel, Obama will highlight the Jewish connection to this land, Ya’ari notes, a theme that was absent from his Cairo address. Ya’ari predicts no dramatic peace initiatives in the course of the visit.

The manager of the King David Hotel reports that the entire hotel has been taken over by Obama and his entourage. The president is traveling with some 600 people. The King David has 230 rooms. They’re not all tripling up; other hotels are also playing host, but the King David is the HQ.

The hundreds of traveling journalists, meanwhile, are set up at the Inbal Hotel around the corner.

Matti Friedman is now photographing US Black Hawk helicopters on the airport tarmac.

Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, part of the welcoming party, declares his opposition to Palestinian statehood — noting that if there were one, Ben Gurion airport itself would be under threat from 2 kilometers away — minutes after coalition colleague Yael German (Yesh Atid) has expressed her desire for a two-state solution and her support for Obama’s efforts to advance it. We shouldn’t obsess about the differences between us, says Bennett.