Obama Meets Israeli Leaders

And so far they seem impressed:

Obama held a breakfast meeting Wednesday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the first event in a day packed with meetings and travel across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Neither man spoke to reporters as they posed for news cameras at the plush downtown King David Hotel before sitting down to a breakfast of smoked salmon and local cheeses.

According to a statement released by the Defense Ministry the two held a "vigorous and intense discussion touching on all the basic issues and future challenges facing Israel and the free world in the region."

After the Barak meeting, Obama met opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu said he was impressed about Obama's understanding of the Iranian threat and said they both agreed that a nuclear Iran was unacceptable.

The opposition leader stressed that they also agreed what was important was the ends of preventing a nuclear Iran rather than the means and that when it comes to stopping Iran there were no politics.

Netanyahu also outlined his plan for economic peace with the Palestinians and Obama told him he agreed that quality of life was connected to security.

Obama said, "I'll never compromise Israel's security. Terrorism is not theoretical, it's right here a block away from this hotel, and it must be fought with full force and strength."

Netanyahu was joined in the meeting by his foreign policy advisers Dore Gold, Uzi Arad, Zalman Shoval and Ron Dermer.

I thought Netanyahu, who is on very good terms with McCain, might do his buddy a favor by expressing some disagreement with Obama. It's nice to be proven wrong.

Haaretz reports that interest is high over Obama's visit:

Not since Yitzhak Rabin's funeral has Israel hosted as many senior officials from abroad as it has this year. There was U.S. President George W. Bush (twice), German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. And yet, the visit by presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, who landed here for a lightning stay last night, has aroused more interest than any of them. Even more than Carla Bruni.