Barack Obama in Jerusalem • "I came to tell you that you are not alone in this neighborhood"

Strengthening ties with Israel, military aid and continued treatment of the Iranian nuclear issue, were some of the issues raised today (Tuesday), during the first day of the visit of President Barack Obama in Israel

Historic visit of U.S. President Barack Obama, Israel, starting today in the early afternoon, with the landing of the presidential plane, Air Force 1 at Ben Gurion Airport.

President, Prime Minister and Ministers, together with the Chief Rabbis of Israel, waited for him at the airport and greeted him, alongside many VIPs. Between rabbinic figures who arrived were Rabbi Yaakov Ifergan (the rentagon) and Rabbi Yitzchak David Grossman of Migdal Haemek .

At the initial short ceremony held on the runway itself, President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visitor Barack Obama spoke. Obama emphasized his remarks that the United States will always stand with Israel. The speech began with a few words in Hebrew: "It is good to be back in Israel." Shimon Peres said as they shook hands: "Hello, my friend."

"Mr. President, your personal story reflects the worldwide history," Shimon Peres opened his remarks. "Your vision reflects the future as it should be. You offered the American people and the rest of the citizens of the world a leadership of vision and values. A leadership committed to a better tomorrow. At times of peace and times of war, your support to Israel cannot be appealed."

Israel's Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger gave the visitor a holy book as a gift when he came down from the plane. HaGaon Amar greeted Obama with the blessing: "Blessed is He who gave of his dignity to flesh and blood."

Watch the plane landing in Israel



Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thanked the President and the American people, and said: "The Middle East is unstable and uncertain, the need for friendship now is more important than ever.

Netanyahu added, and suggested the president: "Mr. President, during this historic visit, you will have a chance to see another side of Israel. You will see the past, present, and future which combine a tiny country that left a stamp so great on civilization. You will see the Dead Sea Scrolls, the most ancient Bible in the world, written in Hebrew here 2,000 years ago. These scrolls are a testament to the eternal connection between the Jewish people to Israel. "

Netanyahu also surprised and offered Obama a fake mustache, as he explained: "I was able to see the interview with you on Israeli television a few days ago. You mentioned your desire to walk around anonymous. Then if you have a few minutes, and you are able to get past your security we have chosen several cafes and bars in Tel Aviv, and even a fake mustache prepared for you."

When shaking hands, the Housing Minister, Uri Ariel turned to Obama and asked: "Please release Pollard."

Obama heard the words, but did not respond. Later on Obama was guided to walk along the red lines, and said jokingly of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "He always talks about red lines." Another amusing anecdote occurred when Obama took off the jacket because of the heat, and Netanyahu also quickly removed the jacket he was wearing.

When representing the Ministers, Obama stopped near Lapid. "I heard that you had a good job before entering politics," he said. Lapid replied: "It's true, I had a better job but each one aims his life as he sees fit." But Obama did not let up: "My wife always says, 'Be careful what you wish for yourself, it might come true."

The Iron Dome

After the ceremony, the President's convoy traveled to an area close to the airport – where the Iron Dome system was set up, which the development fund was aided by the U.S. The President reviewed the system, and continued to Jerusalem.

During the journey, given the sparse traffic, Highway 1 was blocked for a few minutes. After a short ride the helicopter landed with the president at Givat Ram, Jerusalem.

Obama arrived at 16:00 at the residence of President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem.

For the occasion of the visit Jerusalem's Center was blocked to traffic for hours.

They were greeted by a chorus of 60 children and walked together on the red carpet. After about an hour into the meeting the two made joint declarations. Obama then continued to the Prime Minister's residence, where he was welcomed by the Prime Minister and his wife.

Prior to the press conference, a meeting was held concerning the Iranian nuclear issue and the situation in Syria. Israel representation at the meeting was national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror and military secretary general, Eyal Zamir.
On the American side were National Security Advisor Tom Donilon American Foreign Minister, John Kerry. The President wrote a greeting in the guest book at the Prime Minister's residence, and also spoke with the Prime Minister's wife.

Press Conference

Finally to mark the end of the evening a press conference was held where Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the U.S. president said: "It's an honor for me to welcome you in Jerusalem. I hope that the gratitude of the people of Israel had made you feel at home."

Netanyahu repeated his support for a two-state solution and that "we will never give up the right to defend ourselves, even our best friend and we have no better friend than the United States."

He went on to refer to the issue of Iran and said: "Sanctions on Iran failed to halt the nuclear process and you know we need to add a real military threat from sanctions."

Obama began the press conference with compliments to the Prime Minister's family and said that "as leaders our greatest responsibility is the security of our people. Bibi's mission is to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens."

Obama said that "as the president I made clear our commitment to Israel's security, today there is security cooperation and exercises more than ever. We provide more military aid and advanced technology to Israel than any administration and that includes support to the systems like Iron Dome which saved lives in Israel."

Obama also noted that "U.S. support for Israel's security is unprecedented and the relationship between the two countries has never been stronger. As part of our support of Israel's security we started talking about expanding security assistance to Israel. Our current agreement is until 2017 and we are talking with our teams to expand it beyond -2017 ".

The U.S. president said on the Palestinian issue that "we talked about how to move toward a solution of two states for two peoples. I congratulate Bibi and I'll talk with Abbas tomorrow and will have more to say after the conversation."

Obama discussed events in Syria and said that "the Assad regime must understand that he will be guilty and responsible for what happens with his chemical weapons." And with respect to Iran, he said: "Our goal is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. We prefer to resolve this in a diplomatic way and there is still time." He added and said: "Each country should make decisions for herself when it comes to decision on vast military operations."

In answer to reports Obama said: "My main goal in this visit is the opportunity to talk directly with the people of Israel. To say to them: While this neighborhood has become more difficult, we are looking after you. You are not alone. We consider Israel's security very seriously."

He added: "Obviously I think I'm a better president than I was four years ago, but it was impossible to achieve peace in my first term, and I said I would not begin to wait to work on this in the second term. It's very complicated to work on all these issues and there is politics on both sides. A lot of things I wanted to do in the U.S. I could not do in the first term because of politics. My goal here is mainly to show that the U.S. is a positive force."

5000 police, 12 hour shifts

In recent days, a U.S. airlift came to Israel. Aircraft of the U.S. military cargo unloaded at the airport several tons of equipment including armored limousine, security vehicles and survived immune to fire and roadside bombs, a fleet of 12 helicopters, Black Hawk, a communications and satellite transmission equipment with which the visiting President can be in constant touch with anyone in his country and abroad.

In terms of the safety of Barack Obama, the most threatened man the world - the U.S. government did not take a risk, and certainly not the Israeli police, which secured the President's convoy using 60 vehicles – in which were the SWAT team (The SWAT), Riot Police (special patrol unit), seven motorcycles, ambulances, mobile intensive care units and even fire trucks.

The operation is accompanied by 400 members of logistics, in addition to 15 thousand police officers; they provided 50 thousand rations and 4,500 accommodations in hotels and hostels, 1,500 per night.

All Israeli police worked two shifts of 12 hours each on all three days of the visit. At any given moment about 5,000 police officers participated in securing the President and his entourage.

Tomorrow Obama will visit the Israel Museum and the Palestinian Authority, and the day after will be laying wreaths during his visit to Mount Herzl and Yad Vashem.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!