Why Exactly Is Obama in Israel? Israeli Columnist Tries to Figure Out His 'Mysterious' Trip in Scathing Op-Ed

US President Barack Obama (L) walks alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a welcome ceremony at Israel’s International Ben Gurion airport on March 20, 2013. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

​Editor's note: Glick's full op-ed has now been cross-posted on TheBlaze contributors section. Read it here.

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On Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama touched down in Israel and was greeted by a welcoming delegation from the host country. He was also greeted by a scathing op-ed from a columnist in one of the country's popular papers.

"Why is US President Barack Obama coming to Israel today?" Caroline Glick -- a former Israeli soldier with a Harvard degree -- asks in a lengthy op-ed in the Jerusalem Post. And it's not just a rhetorical device -- she genuinely can't figure it out. Her conclusion after trying: "The is truth we don't know why Obama is coming to Israel. The Obama administration has not indicated where its Israel policy is going. And Obama's Republican opposition is in complete disarray on foreign policy and not in any position to push him to reveal his plans."

But it's how she gets there that's scathing. We've included some excerpts below.

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​10.

Why is US President Barack Obama coming to Israel today? In 2008, then president George W. Bush came to celebrate Israel's 60th Independence Day, and to reject Israeli requests for assistance in destroying Iran's nuclear installations.

In 1996, then-president Bill Clinton came to Israel to help then-prime minister Shimon Peres's electoral campaign against Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu.

It is possible that Obama is coming here in order to build up pro-Israel bonafides. But why would he bother? Obama won his reelection bid with the support of the overwhelming majority of American Jews. Their support vindicated his hostility toward Israel in his first term. He has nothing to prove.

9.

Given that all of these are positions he has held throughout his presidency, the mystery surrounding his decision to come to Israel only grows. He didn't need to come to Israel to rehash policies we already know.

8.

Much of the coverage of Obama's trip has focused on symbolism. For instance, the administration decided to boycott Ariel University by not inviting its students to attend Obama's speech to students from all other universities that is set to take place on Thursday in Jerusalem. In boycotting Ariel, Obama's behavior is substantively the same as that of Britain's Association of University Teachers. In 2005 that body voted to boycott University of Haifa and Ben-Gurion University in the Negev. But while the AUT's action was universally condemned, Obama's decision to bar Israelis whose university is located in a city with 20,000 residents just because their school is located beyond the 1949 armistice lines has generated litte attention.

Then again, seeing as Obama's snub of Ariel University is in keeping with the White House's general war with anyone who disputes its view that Judea and Samaria are Arab lands, the lack of outrage at his outrageous behavior makes sense. It doesn't represent a departure from his positions in his first term.

7.

The only revealing aspect of Obama's itinerary is his decision to on the one hand bypass Israel's elected representatives by spurning the invitation to speak before the Knesset; and on the other hand to address a handpicked audience of university students - an audience grossly overpopulated by unelectable, radical leftists.

6.

Clearly he is not attempting to use the opportunity of addressing this audience to express contrition for his first term's policies.

5.

Obama will not use his speech before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's most outspoken critics to express remorse over the hostility with which he treated Israel's leader for the past four years. He will not admit that his decision to coerce Israel into suspending Jewish property rights in Judea and Samaria in his first term gave the PLO justification for refusing to meet with or negotiate with the Israeli government.

4.

So since he doesn't think he's done anything wrong, and he intends to continue the same policies in his second term, why did he decide to come to Israel? And why is he addressing, and so seeking to empower the radical, unelectable Left?

3.

There are two possible policies Obama would want to empower Israel's radical, unelectable Left in order to advance. First, he could be strengthening these forces to help them pressure the government to make concessions to the Palestinians in order to convince the Palestinian Authority to renew negotiations and accept an Israeli peace offer. [...]

This leaves another glaring possibility. Through the radical Left, Obama may intend to foment a pressure campaign to force the government to withdraw unilaterally from all or parts of Judea and Samaria, as Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. If this is Obama's actual policy goal, it would represent a complete Europeanization of US policy toward Israel.

2.

The is truth we don't know why Obama is coming to Israel. The Obama administration has not indicated where its Israel policy is going. And Obama's Republican opposition is in complete disarray on foreign policy and not in any position to push him to reveal his plans.

1.

What we can say with certainty is that the administration that supports the "democratically elected" Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and did so much to clear all obstacles to its election, is snubbing the democratically elected Israeli government, and indeed, Israel's elected officials in general.

Read the full column that's now been cross-posted on ThBlaze here.

By the way, the issue Glick raises about Obama snubbing the Knesset and the university is the focus of a report by TheBlaze's own Sharona Schwartz. You can read up on the outrage those decisions are causing here.