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Obama to Make First Trip to Israel as President for a "New Beginning"
(Washington Post) Scott Wilson - President Obama will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories in March to make a push for peace negotiations and to assess the broader political developments remaking the Middle East. It will be Obama's first trip as president to Israel, where suspicions run high in the aftermath of his unsuccessful early efforts at Middle East peacemaking. The direct peace talks Obama inaugurated in September 2010 collapsed within weeks. Israeli media reported that Obama is scheduled to arrive March 20 as part of a trip that will include Jordan. "This trip is a signal that the president has an interest, not just in the peace issue, but also in the broader concerns that Israel is facing," said Dennis Ross, a senior Middle East adviser to Obama during his first term who is at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "In some ways, it will be the president traveling to Israel to ask for a new beginning."