"Gone By The Wind" - Official Obama 'farewell' ceremony nixed due to sand storm.(JPost). US President Barack Obama was on his way to Ben Gurion airport on Friday afternoon as his three-day visit to Israel came to a close.
The last stop on Obama's tour of Israel and the West Bank was the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus was born. Obama's visit to the site is seen as a message of solidarity to dwindling Christian communities in a turbulent region.
Due to strong winds and sand storms Obama changed his plans to fly to Bethlehem in a helicopter, opting instead to travel in a convoy of cars. Highway 1 between Jerusalem was blocked between the hours of 13:30 and 16:00. Additionally, Obama's official farewell ceremony from Israel's Ben Gurion airport was cancelled due to a sand storm that has enveloped central Israel. Instead, there will be a small ceremony which will take place on the tarmac.
Earlier Friday, while visiting Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial Obama said the state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but because of its strong existence the Holocaust will never happen again.
The statement marked a significant corrective to his speech in Cairo in 2009, where he appeared to argue that the legitimacy of the Jewish state stemmed from the Holocaust.
Wearing a kippa, Obama rekindled an eternal flame next to a stone slab above ashes recovered from extermination camps after World War Two. "We have a choice to acquiesce to evil or make real our solemn vow - never again," Obama said.
Obama made clear he recognized that Jewish roots to the Holy Land were centuries-old. "Here on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear, the state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but with the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel, such a Holocaust will never happen again," he said.
The president said that one could visit the memorial 1,000 times, "and each time one's heart would break."
Obama began the third and final day of his first presidential trip to Israel with visits to the graves of Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin, accompanied by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.
Obama laid a wreath and stone at the graves of the founder of Zionism, and the slain prime minister, who has become a symbol for the peace process, before touring Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. At Rabin's grave, Obama paid his respects to family members of the late prime minister, including daughter Dalia Rabin and his granddaughter Noa Rotman.
"Sometimes it is harder to embark on peace than to embark on war," Rabin's daughter, Dalia, quoted Obama as telling the family at the grave site.
Hmmmm........The Lord works in mysterious ways. Must be in a hurry to get him out of Israel before the Sabbath starts.Read the full story here.
More here on the Live blog of Times Of Israel
Hehehe.
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