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Why Is Obama Rushing to Israel?

It is hard to believe that the announcement of the US presidential visit to Israel isn't timed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's negotiations on a new government, writes Akiva Eldar.
U.S. President Barack Obama arrives via Marine One at Leesburg Executive Airport to delivers remarks nearby at the House Democratic Issues Conference, in Leesburg, Virginia, February 7, 2013.  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst    (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3DGQT
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Why is President Barack Obama in such a rush to come here next month? Why, at the beginning of February, did he hurry to announce a visit planned for mid-March; why doesn’t he give the new government 100 days' grace to consolidate its policies? After all, we are talking about vital issues such as the state’s permanent borders, its security, its relations with its neighbors and the uprooting of tens of thousands of people from their homes. In the four years of Obama’s first term of office, he didn’t set foot here. Even when he visited the neighbors — in Turkey and Egypt (remember the Cairo speech?) — he passed up a courtesy visit to Jerusalem.

President Obama will not get to Jerusalem and Ramallah before the swearing-in of the new Israeli government. That complex task may only coalesce into a coalition agreement at the last minute, in the middle of March.

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