Why is Pres Obama spending hours at the Israel Museum but not going near the Western Wall?

Why is Pres Obama spending hours at the Israel Museum but not going near the Western Wall? (TOI).By Raphael Ahren. Yad Vashem but not the Knesset, the Church of the Nativity but not the Western Wall, the Israel Museum but not Masada. In a visit as high-profile as US President Barack Obama’s Wednesday-to-Friday stay in Israel, every stop on the itinerary is laden with political significance. So, too, every location left out.

So why is Obama doing what he’s doing, going where he’s going, and avoiding what he’s avoiding? Here’s a chronological guide.

At around 12:15 p.m., Air Force One will land at Ben Gurion Airport and Barack Obama will step on Israeli soil for the first time since becoming president four years ago. He is traveling without his wife Michelle, because the first lady’s unofficial policy is not to go abroad while school is in session, so her daughters don’t stay home alone or miss class. Secretary of State John Kerry will be with Obama at every step of the way.

President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be on site to greet Obama with welcoming speeches. The two presidents will inspect an honor guard, and then Obama himself will make his first short speech.

He will go on to visit a battery of the Iron Dome missile defense system, brought to the airport for his convenience.(Read 'Protection').

But if Obama truly sought to highlight the Jewish connection to the land of Israel, why not visit the Western Wall?
One minor reason: On his last visit to Judaism’s holiest site, in 2008, after he placed a note in one of the cracks, nosy Israeli reporters took it out and published it, causing a small scandal. (For the extremely curious: the note reportedly stated: “Lord — protect my family and me. Forgive my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”)

Then an Illinois senator and presidential candidate, Obama was heckled by locals that day, with one man shouting at him for minutes on end. “Obama, Jerusalem is our land! Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale!”

“I was expecting more reverence,” Obama told reporters later.

More substantively, Obama’s decision to skip the Wall this time has to do with the political implications of such a visit. The Old City lies beyond the pre-1967 lines, and Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem has not been recognized by the international community. A US president visiting the site under the auspices of his Israeli hosts would trigger diplomatic headaches he evidently prefers to live without.

For the record, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also avoided the Wall when they visited as presidents. Next up, Obama’s much-anticipated speech to the Israeli public — especially young Israelis — at the International Convention Center. Why didn’t he choose to speak in the Knesset? His last two predecessors did: Clinton in 1994 and Bush in 2008.

According to Rhodes, the Israeli government “did not express a strong preference in that regard.

A possible concern: the fear of being heckled by right-wing MKs. Freshman Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin, for example, had threatened to walk out if Obama dared to show up without Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy who is serving a life term in an American prison. It was not his way “to shout and make a scene,” Feiglin said, but “on the other hand, how could I sit quietly and honor the president of the nation that has imprisoned our brother Jonathan for 28 years?”Read the full story here.