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Obama in Israel: Worth The Wait

President Barack Obama knew what buttons to push during his visit to Israel, though his real task is not to preach to the converted, as he did in his “Jerusalem speech,” but to convince the skeptics, writes Ben Caspit.    
Students listen to U.S. President Barack Obama talk at the Jerusalem Convention Center in Jerusalem, March 21, 2013. President Obama, delivering a keynote speech to Israeli students, said on Thursday that continued settlement activity was "counterproductive" to peace and urged Israelis to accept the Palestinians' right to self-determination.     REUTERS/Larry Downing  (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3F9Z6
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Better late than never. President Barack Obama did his shtick in Jerusalem, and it worked.

As was to be expected, the American president’s magic touch electrified Israelis, too. For four long, tortuous years, they had been waiting for him, watching helplessly as he gave most of his attention to the Arab world around them. They saw him giving them, but chiefly their prime minister, a cold shoulder, relegating them to the bottom of his priorities. But it was all well worth the wait. Although reading from a teleprompter, getting his material from painstaking research by the embassy staff and intelligence agencies, and relying on the great means that are available to the president of a superpower, when all is said and done, it’s him — Obama.

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