Americans in Israel say speech ‘well delivered’ but ‘unusually bold’

ToI’s Mitch Ginsburg reports:

At Mike’s Place on Jaffa Road, one of Jerusalem’s only true watering holes — a bar with Southern rock on the sound system and college basketball on TV — a group of American Birthright participants in their early- to mid-30s, as well as other US students from the University of Haifa, came together to watch Obama’s address at the ICC. Almost all were a bit late for the start of the speech. Most listened in silence and those at my table listened especially keenly for the word “peace” — and raised their glasses to drink each time Obama spoke the word.

Michael Gold, participating in the Birthright trip, which is focused on hiking in Israel, said he recognized the themes of the speech from Obama’s US election campaign. “He wanted to rejuvenate and motivate,” he said.

Rachel Herchenberg, a trip leader from Baltimore who joined the “U-S-A!” chants when Obama concluded his speech with the usual “God bless America” refrain, said she was “proud to be an American in Israel at the same time as the US president was in the country.” She described a proud feeling of looking up at the sky and seeing the president’s helicopter overhead.

Another trip member, who would only give his name as “Steven from New York” — he explained he worked for a financial company that did not like its employees speaking to the media — said he thought the speech “was a little more pushy than I would have expected. It was unusually bold for a president in a foreign country.”

At another table, a trio of Haifa University students — hailing from the universities of Wisconsin, Portland State and Ohio State — were all impressed by the speech. “I liked the content,” said Jake Beckert. “It was well delivered.”

“But we’re waiting to see the action,” added Zoe Morgan, who admitted that she “got goosebumps” when Obama spoke about his meeting with Palestinian students.

All three students seemed well informed about Israeli politics and the shortcomings of both the system and the political players in it, offering analyses of the narrowness of Shelly Yachimovich and Tzipi Livni’s respective platforms. All three said they hoped the speech would trigger change — but that they doubted it. “I’m really an optimist,” said Morgan, “but I’m afraid that no.”