The Most Revealing Moment of Obama’s Israel Trip

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Operation Desert Schmooze,President Barack Obama’s two-day charm offensive in Jerusalem,achieved its central goal of convincing Israelis that the U.S.president, to invert an ancient stereotype, doesn’t have horns.

Obama’s achievements were partly symbolic. Merely bysmiling and saying comforting words about Israel’s inherentlegitimacy, he went a long way toward neutralizing a Republicanpropaganda campaign that was meant to convince Israelis (andAmerican Jews) that he was the bastard offspring of Jimmy Carterand Haman. Jonathan Tobin, formerly an acidic critic of Obama’sapproach to Israel, wrote on Commentary magazine’s website thatmany of the president’s “Jewish and Democratic defenders havebeen to some extent vindicated and his critics chastened, if notsilenced.”