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Obama trip seen as 'preemptive kiss to Israeli people' ahead of tough peace talks
President Obama's first official trip to Israel next week aims to “reset the relationship” with the Israeli people and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of tough peace negotiations with the Palestinians in his second term, according to the liberal Jewish group J Street.
The White House has sought to downplay expectations that the trip will result in any immediate breakthrough. But after recently meeting with Obama, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said the conventional wisdom that the trip's “low expectations” bode ill for the stalled peace talks is dead wrong.
The trip “provides the president with the opportunity to provide a preemptive kiss to the Israeli people,” Ben-Ami told reporters on a conference call Thursday. When the administration presses Israel for concessions later on, he said, Obama's visit will have helped re-enforce a “sense of trust” that the administration has Israel's best interests at heart.
The White House has set low expectations for immediate results from Obama's visit to Israel, Jordan and the West Bank.
“I'm sure that any time the president and prime minister have a discussion and certainly any time the president has a discussion with leaders of the Palestinian Authority, that those issues are raised,” spokesman Jay Carney said about reigniting peace talks. “But that is not the purpose of this visit.”
Ben-Ami said he agreed with that approach.
“Expectations are low, and I think that's appropriate,” he said. He pointed out that there could be “no concrete initiative, because the groundwork hasn't been laid” and said that both Obama and Netanyahu's new national security teams will be newly installed when the two leaders meet.
“The key will be the follow-through after the trip,” he said, particularly Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to “quietly build an international support for an initiative to see what he can do with both sides.”
