As he prepares to leave for his Middle East trip, Obama is talking up "new honesty" with Israel.
1. He isn't delivering platitudes on the US' friendship with Israel, special relationship nonsense, etc. On previous trips to Arab countries, American presidents usually deliver perfunctory hyperbole on Israeli-US relations.
2. I don't know many presidents who've spoken on the need to speak honestly with Israel about its foreign policy and the concept of Israel being its own worst enemy with settlements. Eisenhower was truly the last president who played hardball with Israel. Clinton couldn't get Ehud Barak to budge, and that was due to his glad-handing of Israel and AIPAC. In other words, when he really wanted Barak to sing his tune, he couldn't because he didn't hold a stable policy line.
Maybe Obama won't hold true to the current rhetoric, but few presidents have tread this ground.
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