Obama visits the Dead Sea Scrolls

The president arrives at the Museum, and is welcomed by Netanyahu, and by Israel Museum director James Snyder. He is taken into the Shrine of the Book to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. He’s to be shown a scroll of the Book of Isaiah — but apparently won’t be allowed to touch it. No, not even the president.

Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu in the Shrine of the Book. (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

Snyder is giving Obama, Netanyahu and negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, who heads the museum board, a tour of the Shrine, which he says is the only permanent building constructed with its unique design.

True to his promise, Obama is spending most of his time listening as he views fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Obama asked for a coin, and Molcho had to ask somebody else for some shekels for Obama to throw in a wishing well at the site.