Barack Obama pulled off quite a trick in his Jerusalem speech – appealing to ordinary Israelis over the heads of their political leaders and cleverly borrowing a line from their national anthem to explain why Palestinians also deserve to be "free people in their own land".

In the biggest moment of his Middle East trip so far, the president displayed a smart combination of emotional and political intelligence in pressing the buttons that matter to mainstream Jewish opinion in Israel(and the US): he referenced Biblical heroes, pogroms, persecution, the Holocaust, Zionism and the old saw about pioneers "making the desert bloom" – all linked to the urgent prospect of making peace. The oratory was impressive; the politics less so.

Obama's effusive pitch embraced every area of unqualified US support for Israel: military, political and economic aid. A quartet of common enemies – Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran – were vilified and there was praise for "the courage of the Israel Defence Forces, and a citizenry that is resilient in the face of terror" – though no mention of life in Gaza

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/21/obama-appeals-israeli-emotions-speech

Mr. Obama condemned the rocket attacks, which came in violation of a three-month cease-fire, but he insisted that the Israelis should not use violence as an excuse to avoid negotiations, no more than the Palestinians should insist that Israel halt construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a condition. “If we’re going to be successful, part of what we’re going to have to do is get out of the formulas and habits that have blocked progress,” Mr. Obama said in a news conference with Mr. Abbas. “Both sides are going to have to think anew.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/world/middleeast/gaza-militants-fire-rockets-as-obama-visits.html?hp&_r=0

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