He told me a story that the former Palestinian prime minister Salman Fayad had told him, about how the Israelis parked a car in front of his office every few days and sat there, watching him. “It’s not about security,” Fayad had said. “It’s about power.” “Well,” I said, “that makes our theory more necessary: Show the Israelis you love them but also challenge them.” “That’s your theory,” he said. “The Ben Rhodes theory.” Obama—who was often accused of putting too much stock in speeches—was more cynical than I about the capacity for a speech to change entrenched attitudes, particularly a
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