ليموزين أوباما تضرب عن العمل في مطار تل أبيب تضامنا مع الفلسطينيين و الأردن ينقذ الموقف فيرسل بسيارة بديلة عوضا عن الوطن البديل
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| ليموزين أوباما تضرب عن العمل في مطار تل أبيب تضامنا مع الفلسطينيين و الأردن ينقذ الموقف فيرسل بسيارة بديلة عوضا عن الوطن البديل |
Barack Obama with Shimon Peres and Binyamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv. Photograph: Oliver
Weiken/EPA
Barack Obama hails 'eternal' US-Israel alliance at start of Middle East visit
Obama says his first visit to Israel as US president is chance to 'reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our nations'
The alliance between Israel and the United States is eternal, Barack Obama has said after landing in the Jewish state for his first visit since becoming US president more than four years ago.
"I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our nations, to restate America's unwavering commitment to Israel's security and to speak directly to the people of Israel and to your neighbours," Obama said at a welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. "I am confident in declaring that our alliance is eternal, is forever," he added.
In a short speech before Israeli parliamentarians, religious leaders, military figures and other dignitaries, Obama said: "We will never lose sight of the vision of an Israel at peace with its neighbours." The Palestinians were not mentioned by name.
Air Force One touched down at about 12.30pm local time in glorious spring sunshine that prompted the president to discard his jacket shortly after the end of the ceremonials. His visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories is scheduled to last 50 hours before the 600-strong entourage departs for Jordan on Friday.
The trip has been billed primarily as a listening exercise by the White House, which has been anxious to set low-to-zero expectations of tangible outcomes. Talks between Obama and the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, are expected to focus on Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The president will also travel to Ramallah to meet Palestinian leaders.
Obama, Netanyahu and the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, wore broad smiles and matching blue ties as they strode along the red carpet. In his welcoming remarks, Peres thanked America for its unshakeable support and said "a world without your friendship would invite aggressions against Israel".
He added: "We long to see an end to the conflict with the Palestinians. To see the Palestinians enjoying freedom and prosperity in their own state. We extend our hand in peace to all the countries of the Middle East."
Netanyahu said Israel sought peace with its Palestinian neighbours, and the need for the US-Israel alliance was "stronger than ever".
As the leaders spoke, Palestinian activists set up a protest camp consisting of about 15 tents on highly sensitive land near Jerusalem known as E1. They said their action was "to claim our right as Palestinians to return to our lands and villages".
A similar protest village in the area, named Bab al-Shams, was forcibly removed by Israeli security forces. The Israeli military may be reluctant, however, to deploy bulldozers and teargas against protesters during Obama's visit.
Israeli air space was closed for about an hour for the arrival of Air Force One. Following the airport ceremonials, Obama inspected an Iron Dome mobile missile defence unit – largely funded by the US – that had been brought to Ben Gurion airport. He then flew to Jerusalem by helicopter.
Wednesday's schedule is dominated by at least five hours of talks between Obama and Netanyahu. Despite the lack of personal warmth between the two leaders, it will be the tenth time the pair have met face to face since both took office in early 2008. No other world leader has clocked up as many meetings with Obama.
The Iranian nuclear programme is top of the agenda for Netanyahu, closely followed by the deteriorating security situation in neighbouring Syria. The stalled "peace process" with the Palestinians will also be discussed, along with Israel's regional relationships, principally with Turkey and Egypt.
Some US and Israeli officials say the trip is also aimed at recalibrating the tetchy relationship between the two leaders at the start of their second terms, and building trust on both sides.
The White House has said it is a "chance to connect with the Israeli people" – who are largely distrustful of Obama. A poll published last week in the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv showed that 10% of Israelis had a favourable attitude towards Obama, and 17% defined their attitude towards the US president as "hateful".
As part of his overture, Obama will deliver his keynote speech of the visit to an invited audience of Israeli university students at the international convention centre in Jerusalem on Thursday.
He will travel to Ramallah to meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and prime minister, Salaam Fayyad. The seven-mile journey will be made by helicopter, thus avoiding crossing by land the seven-metre-high concrete separation wall that snakes through Jerusalem, cutting off much of the east of the city and the West Bank. The president will have a birds-eye view of the barrier and some of the 130-plus Jewish settlements that punctuate the West Bank landscape.
Many Palestinians are hostile towards Obama, believing he failed to live up to early pledges to halt Israeli colonisation of the West Bank and tried to obstruct their quest for recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations. On Tuesday scuffles broke out between anti-Obama protesters and police near the Muqata, the presidential compound in Ramallah where Thursday's meeting is due to take place. Many posters bearing Obama's face have been torn or painted over.
According to the Palestinian Authority, 3,000 police officers will be on duty in the city alongside US security personnel. Five thousand Israeli police will be stationed in Jerusalem for each day of Obama's visit.
Both Israelis and Palestinians are sceptical about the chances of any real movement on the decades-old conflict. A poll published in the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday suggested that eight out of 10 Israelis did not believe that Obama would succeed in brokering a peace deal in the next four years.
On Tuesday Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian legislator, criticised the stated goal of the Obama visit of listening to both sides. "The issue is not about listening, but realising the reality of the situation and dealing with it," he told reporters in Ramallah. "The passivity of the United States is dangerous at a time when the whole notion of the two-state solution is at risk. Passivity is unacceptable."
It emerged that the US secretary of state, John Kerry, who has stated his commitment to trying to rekindle peace talks between the two sides, is to return to Jerusalem at the weekend to follow up on Obama's visit.
The presidential entourage leaves Israel for Jordan on Friday afternoon, and Kerry will head back on Saturday for further talks over dinner with Netanyahu. He had not been expected to return to the region until next month.
In January, Kerry warned US senators that the chances of achieving a Palestinian state alongside Israel were diminishing. If a way forward was not found, he said, "the door, or window, or whatever you want to call it, to the possibility of a two-state solution could shut on everybody and that would be disastrous in my judgment".
Obama's itinerary for his 50-hour visit includes visits to the Israel Museum to view the Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel's haunting Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, and the graves of Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, and the assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
He will make a second trip – again by helicopter – to the Palestinian territories on Friday to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. His entourage has taken over the historic King David hotel that overlooks the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.
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