During his trip to Jerusalem this week, President Obama has been asked by Israeli government to pay a visit to the hilltop tomb of Theodor Herzl, the chief theoretician of Zionism, who died decades before his fears of growing anti-Semitism were borne out by the Holocaust.
Other foreign leaders have avoided the site due to the symbolic weight of the site. However, Obama agreed as he wants to improve the relations of the United Nations with the disappointed Israelis.
For many Israelis, Herzl’s grave represents an ancient Jewish claim, rather than one rooted in the Holocaust, to the slice of land that comprises their modern state.
As he embarks Tuesday on his first presidential trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Obama will seek to clarify his support for the Jewish state’s theory of its historical roots. The trip is a mission of remedial diplomacy, rather than the kind of specific peace initiative common for previous presidential visits.
Obama will also travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah during his four-day trip for air-clearing meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other leaders, who are deeply disappointed by Obama and his staunch opposition to their diplomatic push for statehood through the United Nations.