The ability of the president to be perceived as someone with whom all Israelis can identify depends on his ability to avoid being a party to debate.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It's not for the president to determine the arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians, and the Arab world, but to be the bridge between opinions and to facilitate dialogue and understanding.
There's no doubt we'd be very angry if the American president had come to the Knesset and argued against the government of Israel.
There are many Israelis who are not keen on Barack Obama - they did not want to see him elected.
I think President Obama views Israel as a problem that needs to be solved.
I contend that Bush would be a lot more moderate if there weren't some fundamentalists breathing down his neck every time he wants to establish the state of Israel, every time he wants to do justice for the Palestinian people.
We are the greatest experts in the world in criticizing our country, but no one loves his country more than the Israelis. No one.
There is nowhere I encounter greater understanding for Israel's existential issues than in the Oval Office.
Rahm Emanuel seems to think he knows Israel very well, and that the way to treat that country and its democratically-elected government is the way he treats all opponents in politics: by attacking and attacking.
As a citizen of a democratic state, I have always believed that when a prime minister is elected in Israel, even those who voted against him at the polls are obligated to desire his success.
When a deeply sympathetic American president asks for concessions and compromises and appears able to cajole some from the Palestinians, which was the Clinton/Rabin and Bush/Sharon combination, Israel must respond.
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