Obama’s Holy Land tour ended yesterday, but not before Netanyahu made a phone call to Turkey’s Erdogan to apologize for the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla deaths. A special phone booth (a trailer) was conveniently placed next to Air Force One where Bibi could make the call before Obama boarded the plane.

Ironically, in spite of White House efforts to shield Obama from obvious, unspeakable warts, weather assured he’d see one – the separation wall. A local khamsin, a desert sand storm, blew in at just the moment Obama was to take his helicopter to the West Bank. Poor visibility meant he now had to drive through Jerusalem to reach Bethlehem, which meant passing through and along one of the most sobering symbols of the conflict. Some might call that divine intervention.

Still, Obama’s speech and visit to the Israeli people have registered as a roaring success in spite of their lack of meaningful substance on critical peace issues. And the apology to Turkey certainly gives Obama a feather for his hat.

Click below to watch the speech everyone (in Israel) is talking about. Israeli papers reported, “He had us at shalom.”