Readers have been asking us to be a bit more forthcoming in respect of President Obama’s visit to Israel. We confess we’ve been hanging back. The trip reminded us that in many ways we find the President an extremely attractive figure. He is smart, and articulate. He presents well. We understand this isn’t a universal view among conservatives. To our ear, he speaks beautifully, comes across as thoughtful and sincere, and cuts a youthful and energetic figure. It was fun to watch him connect with young Israelis and affecting to see him lay a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl.

Yet Herzl is but one of the two great Zionist prophets. The other — whose portrait Menachem Begin hung beside Herzl’s — is Vladimir Jabotinsky, author of “The Iron Wall.” That essay argued that the only way for peace to be achieved between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is for the Jewish state to maintain such an unflinching defense that the Arabs, however unjust they deem the circumstances, abandon hope of defeating it. Its logic suggests that maundering on about peace can be counterproductive, delaying the dawn of reality.

In many ways, the idea of the Iron Wall has become basic strategy for the Jewish state. It has had plenty of American help, too, including from Mr. Obama. On this very trip, he visited the “Iron Dome” part of the Iron Wall. He, like presidents before him, has committed to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge. It was during the Obama presidency that bunker buster bombs were reportedly moved to Israel’s arsenal. They would be the sort of weapon a country might need were it going to attack the kinds of underground structures where Iran is working on it’s a-bomb.

Yet when Mr. Obama spoke to the students, it was like he just didn’t get the basic idea. Our scan of the text of his speech counted 29 uses of the word peace. He carried on about how peace is “necessary” and “also just.” Then he asserted that the “only path to peace is through negotiations,” though we ourselves abjured them with the Germans, the Japanese, and the Confederacy, to name but three instances in which we learned that there is another way to peace. Then he went into a lecture about the Palestinian “people’s” rights and how they “must” be recognized. No wonder the Palestinian Arabs have failed to step up.

And just to underline the point, Mr. Obama ended his visit by hornswoggling Prime Minister Netanyahu into apologizing to the Turkish premier, Recep Erdogan, for the deaths on the Motor Vessel Mavi Marmarra. We don’t fault Mr. Netanyahu. He was the host. He had a guest. But sending the Mavi Marmarra to run Israel’s blockade was one of the most provocative acts any major country has ever countenanced against Israel. The blood of the nine dead is entirely on Turkish hands. It was the Turk who owed the apology. By maneuvering things the other way around Mr. Obama offered an incentive for more trouble that will mar the good feelings he seems so sincerely to want to engender.