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Obama's Real Reason For Visiting Israel

President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel is not motivated by a desire to win over the Israeli public, writes Akiva Eldar, but rather by the need to salvage the standing of the United States as an influential power in the region.
U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with children before he signs a guest book at the residence of Israel's President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, March 20, 2013. Making his first official visit to Israel, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday unwavering commitment to the security of the Jewish State where concern over a nuclear-armed Iran has clouded U.S.-Israeli relations. REUTERS/Larry Downing  (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3F8AE
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Already in his first speech upon landing in Israel, US President Barack Obama did not limit himself to polite niceties, as expected from an American president on a first visit to Israel. The important visitor stressed the winds of change blowing through the Middle East and pointed to the opportunities and hopes that they carry for the pragmatic forces in the region. But he was careful to warn of the heavy price of missing these opportunities for positive change, and of the dangers posed by that loss.

Most analysts explain that President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel is a make-up visit designed to repair the damage to his public standing in Israel for skipping Jerusalem on his way to Cairo in 2009. The question is this: Why does the leader of the free world need the sympathy of the Israeli public? Why is the leader of the strongest global power making such an effort to court a country with a population equal to about two percent of the US population? 

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