{"id":6077,"date":"2013-03-20T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=6077"},"modified":"2013-03-20T10:00:07","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:00:07","slug":"obama-lands-praises-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/obama-lands-praises-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama lands, praises Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TEL\u00a0AVIV (JTA) &#8212; President Obama began his first presidential visit to Israel with an airport speech calling the United States the \u201cstrongest ally and greatest friend\u201d of Israel.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6078\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Netanyahu_Obama.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6078\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6078 lazyload\" title=\".\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Netanyahu_Obama-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Netanyahu_Obama-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Netanyahu_Obama.jpg 724w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6078\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6078 \" title=\".\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Netanyahu_Obama-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Netanyahu_Obama-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Netanyahu_Obama.jpg 724w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-6078\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caption: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeting President Obama at a welcome ceremony for the president at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, March 20, 2013. (Miriam Alster \/ Flash90 \/ JTA)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhy does the U.S. stand with Israel?\u201d Obama asked the crowd at the welcoming ceremony Wednesday afternoon at Ben-Gurion Airport. \u201cWe stand together because we share a common story. We stand together because we\u2019re democracies. We stand together because together we\u2019re more prosperous. We share a commitment to helping our fellow human beings around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Obama said an alliance with Israel is in the \u201cfundamental national security interest\u201d of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Among fluttering Israeli and American flags, the U.S. leader was escorted to the tarmac by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. An honor guard and military band greeted the trio as they shook hands with Israeli religious, political and cultural dignitaries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you for standing by Israel in this time of historic change for the Middle East,\u201d Netanyahu said in his welcome to Obama. \u201cThank you for strengthening the alliance between our two countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neither Obama nor Netanyahu, nor Peres, who also spoke, mentioned the Iranian nuclear program, an issue of grave concern for the U.S. and Israel. Reportedly it is one of the primary topics that Netanyahu and Obama will discuss when they meet.<\/p>\n<p>In what may indicate another purpose of the visit, though, all three leaders spoke about peace with the Palestinians. Netanyahu said that Israelis \u201cseek peace with our Palestinian neighbors.&#8221; Obama declared that \u201cpeace must come to the Holy Land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Obama added that one of his goals is to speak directly with the Israeli people, and at the beginning of his speech he tried out some Hebrew, saying, \u201cShalom, it\u2019s good to be in Israel again.\u201d He has been to the country three times, the last in 2008 when he was a U.S. senator and presidential candidate.<\/p>\n<p>Obama viewed an Iron Dome anti-missile battery brought to the airport for his inspection.<\/p>\n<p>During his three-day visit to the region he will meet with Peres and Netanyahu, visit Israeli cultural and historical landmarks, and address an Israeli audience. He also will visit the West Bank, where he will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Obama%20lands%2C%20praises%20Israel\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2333,8781,8790,8795,8788,312,674],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6079,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6077\/revisions\/6079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}