President Obama’s speech in Jerusalem will be clear: Israelis, don’t let your Jewish Athens become a Sparta of eternal war.

Obama’s visit is an important opportunity for Israel to lobby for a grand agreement between the U.S. and Russia to protect and disarm the Alawite minority in Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad's regime.

Have Israeli leaders co-opted the country's beauty queen to raise the issue of Jonathan Pollard with President Obama because she is Ethiopian? Do they think Obama will reconsider Pollard just because another black person asks him to?

No matter how charmed the Israeli public is by Obama's visit, Israelis remain unconvinced that making major concessions will buy any real closure to the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially at a time when a hollowed-out American military can't ride to the rescue if everything turns sour.

The Israeli left is still waiting for a president to come here and, like a police officer, bring peace to our country in the name of American values, as America has done in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and other places the Israeli left never mentions.

If Obama begins to grasp the tribal, fluid and divided nature of Israeli politics and how to impact Israeli voters and their leaders (including Yair Lapid, the new leader of the Ashkenazi middle-class tribe), then this visit might be worth something after all.

The 'Free Pollard' campaign ahead of Obama's visit is a disgrace to American Zionists and U.S.-Israel relations. The bare truth is that he committed espionage for financial gain and glory.

There's no other way to understand what Obama said in his interview with Channel 2 on the eve of his visit here.