Photo Credit: Edi Israel/Flash90
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama was given a T-shirt by the mayor of Sderot on his last visit to Israel, July 23, 2008.

President Barack Obama is planning to visit Israel, the PA and Jordan this spring, probably in March, the White House said yesterday, hinting at a new American effort to restart Israel-Palestinian peace efforts.

Israel’s Channel 10 News cited a source in Washington that said the president will visit Jerusalem on March 20th—the week just before Pesach.

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Obama’s trip, his first to Israel since taking office, appears to show that he intends to concentrate on Middle East politics:

“The start of the president’s second term and the formation of a new Israeli government offer the opportunity to reaffirm the deep and enduring bonds between the United States and Israel,” Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said Tuesday, “and to discuss the way forward on a broad range of issues of mutual concern, including, of course, Iran and Syria.”

Obama’s new secretary of state, John Kerry, also plans to visit Israel in March.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said a visit by the president would be “an important opportunity to underscore the friendship and strong partnership between Israel and the United States.”

Dennis Ross, a former Middle East adviser to Mr. Obama, told the NY Times the trip reflects “a desire to connect with the Israeli public at a time when he can go and not have high expectations about having to produce something.”

Ross added that the president “can create a new beginning with the same prime minister but with a new Israeli government.”

The Times pointed out that Obama visited Israel in 2008 as a candidate, but not during his first term, a fact that was criticized by a pro-Romney commercial saying Obama “traveled all over the Middle East but he hasn’t found time to visit our ally and friend, Israel.”

Incidentally, four sitting presidents have visited Israel: Richard M. Nixon and Jimmy Carter one time each, George W. Bush twice, and Bill Clinton four times (by the fourth time there were rumors he was checking the possibility of running for the Knesset on the Labor list).

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Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published Dancing and Crying, a colorful and intimate portrait of the last two years in the life of the late Lubavitch Rebbe, (in Hebrew), and two fun books in English: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.