Here's a round-up of some of the Obama-in-Israel coverage."Erin Burnett at CNN used the trip as an opportunity to renew her association with Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett, whom she called Naftali, and whose racist policies she ignored, even when he was complaining that his children have to live a few miles away from Arabs.""Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC enthused about the fact that Obama repeatedly referred to Netanyahu as "Bibi," and Netanyahu even called Obama Barack. Why is it so important that these men get along? Because of Iran and Syria, she says. She had on Jeffrey Goldberg and Avi Shavit of Haaretz and Martin Fletcher. It was left to Fletcher, the son of a Holocaust survivor who has thoroughly identified with Israelis, to say that Palestinians are not so keen on Obama." HT: Phillip Weiss.And this from Juan Cole: "The USG Open Source Center translated some reactions from Likud members of parliament and from settler leaders, who are colonizing the Palestinian West Bank. These Israelis warned of the destructive character of Obamas agenda in Israel and vowed to fight any implementation of his suggestions." Those comments will be found here.And perhaps the diplomatic triumph of the visit. PM Netanyahu apologized to PM Erdogan of Turkey for the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla. The raid killed nine people including Turkish citizens. Erdogan accepted the apology. Ha'aretzPat Langs summary: "[Obama] did not free Pollard. He didn't offer to give Israel extra free money or guns. He and Natanyahu managed to conceal their true feelings about each other. BHO's speech to the "youth group" was very skilled and the reaction both positive and negative was useful. He apparently did not accept Israeli instruction on Iran and Syria." More Here.Per David Pasinski, please file these under the Scallion, a newsletter that may bring tears to your eyes.

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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