The trip is nothing less than a blatant political effort to persuade Israelis, especially young adults, that Barack Obama wants to be their friend.
Jonathan Cook, writing in CounterPunch, explains one political reason why restarting the peace process is not on Obama's agenda this week.
"As [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu forms a new cabinet in his third term as prime minister, he has less control than he had in his previous governments.
"The settlers' dedicated party, Jewish Home, has been awarded three key ministries -- trade and industry, Jerusalem, and housing -- as well as control of the parliamentary finance committee."
The new political control exercised by settlement leaders and their supporters, will ensure, Cook writes, that the settlements will flourish during this government's term, not a recipe for peace with the Palestinians.
Which brings us to a work of popular film art that has the potential to throw some small amount of light, and perhaps a dollop of wisdom, on this complex problem.
As Obama prepares to return home, we might pause a moment to revisit the classic film, Blues Brothers, a 1980 picture directed by John Landis, which just happens to be set in Obama's hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
The film opens with one brother, Jake, leaving prison. He and his brother Elwood, are reunited around their determination to save the Chicago parish orphanage where they lived as children.
They learn from the Mother Superior (still at the orphanage, and still wielding a ruler) that their old home will have to close unless the Mother Superior can come up with $5000.
The brothers are determined to solve this problem. How will they do it? They will take it one step at a time. First:
Jake: We're putting the band back together. Mr. Fabulous: Forget it. No way. Elwood: We're on a mission from God.
Jake is John Belushi, right, in the picture shown below. Elwood is Dan Aykroyd, at left. They are the Blues brothers.
Their mission from God is to save the orphanage. The obstacles they face appear to be as insurmountable as the obstacles facing President Obama as he makes his first trip as president to Israel and Palestine.
President Obama wants to solve what others see as an intractable problem. Like the Blues brothers, he will take it one step at a time:
First, he will put the US-Israel band "back together."
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