President Obama’s Graceful and Fair Efforts on Thanksgiving.

It’s Thanksgiving so my thanks today are for Mr Obama, who over the past few days took graceful and fair actions when helping to forge an agreement to forestall the increasingly  perilous fighting between Israel and Palestine. An article in the New York Times outlined his efforts in detail. But I found the following details summarized actions that distinguished him from other leaders, for the moment.

The White House phone log tells part of the tale. Mr. Obama talked with Mr. Morsi (President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt),  three times within 24 hours and six times over the course of several days, an unusual amount of one-on-one time for a president. Mr. Obama told aides he was impressed with the Egyptian leader’s pragmatic confidence. He sensed an engineer’s precision with surprisingly little ideology. Most important, Mr. Obama told aides that he considered Mr. Morsi a straight shooter who delivered on what he promised and did not promise what he could not deliver.

“Yes, they were carrying the point of view of the Israeli side but they were understanding also the other side, the Palestinian side,” Mr. Haddad said in Cairo as the cease-fire was being finalized on Wednesday. “We felt there was a high level of sincerity in trying to find a solution. The sincerity and understanding was very helpful.”