From the moment he landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Israel has essentially been one of reconciliation, friendship, smiles and understanding. This is what he intended and everything has gone as planned so far. But the friendship between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not a substitute for their policy positions. At their press conference on Wednesday night, they couldn't hide the fact there are still gaps between their views. Obama believes he can prevent Iran from going nuclear and that he still has time. In private, he is probably pressuring Netanyahu to not launch an independent attack on Iran's nuclear sites. Israel, however, can't accept this demand verbatim even if it intends to abide by it. This explains the tension seen on Netanyahu's face when he answered questions on this issue. Obama and Netanyahu also have differences on the Palestinian issue. Obama was set to go to Ramallah on Tuesday, where it was expected he would hear tough words and encounter a public primed by the Palestinian Authority to express dissatisfaction toward him. It doesn't matter that Obama has praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. How will this influence things? That will become clear when Obama returns to Jerusalem later on Thursday to address Israeli students at the International Convention Center and have another meeting with Netanyahu. At this point, it is possible to put together a preliminary report on Obama's trip. So far, there has been much friendliness, but that hasn't covered up differences in basic outlooks on Iran and the Palestinians. These issues are clouded by developments in Syria, which could plunge the region into war and delay any sort of diplomatic initiative. Obama has a policy of not involving the U.S. in any more armed conflicts in the Middle East. Any intervention in Syria would run contrary to this. This is why Obama is being cautious on Syria, both in terms of determining whether the Assad regime used chemical weapons (Israel believes it did) and deciding what the necessary response should be. While eyes are on the civil war taking place to our northeast, the nature of Obama's visit to Israel will be ascertained on Thursday. In the meantime, the positives for Israel stemming from his visit outweigh the negatives that could pop up over differences on the Palestinian issue.
