Washington Post’s Rubin: Pretty speeches won’t do it

Commentators are beginning to weigh in on the visit so far.

Here’s Jennifer Rubin, pretty withering on Obama in the Washington Post: “The words now are better; the speechwriters are more adept. But the problems remain because the president’s actions over the past few years have conveyed another message, one that does not respect the elected government of Israel and assumes it is the barrier to ‘peace.’ He will need, by words and deeds, to change course if he is to repair the relationship between the two governments. Moreover, he will need to convey that the United States and Israel share the same concern and have the same approach to both Iran and its junior partner, Syria.”

The piece is headed, “Obama in Israel: Pretty speeches won’t do it,” and it concludes: “In short, Obama’s rhetoric has gotten better, but his behavior is at the root of the region’s difficulties and the strain between the United States and Israel. The region, and most especially Israel, requires an effective, vibrant American presence, a well-thought out U.S. approach to the spread of jihadism and an America that engenders respect and, from its foes, fear. Right now, none of that exists. Hence, Israel’s dilemma remains and the region edges closer to total chaos, humanitarian upheaval and a nuclear arms race. But still, it was a very nice speech Obama gave.”

From a very different perspective, here’s ex- Haaretz reporter Akiva Eldar in Al-Monitor: “Obama is coming here to try and salvage what’s left of US standing in the region. An America that abandons the Israeli-Arab conflict to its fate is not worthy of the title ‘world power.’ Giving up the leading role in the play entitled ‘The Peace Process’ is a declaration of bankruptcy by US foreign policy. One can assume that Obama knows the status quo between the occupier and occupied cannot go on forever… The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate does obviously not want the third intifada, signs of which are emerging on the ground, to be named after him.”

Meanwhile, outside the Israel-Obama bubble, in the Middle East-as-usual, Abbas is said to be considering firing his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

And French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy has been banned from Libya — being Jewish and all.

Oh, and Turkey’s Erdogan wasn’t being anti-Semitic when he called Zionism a crime against humanity. He was just criticizing Israeli policies.