I, for one, was entirely impressed to see John McCain hit the right notes yesterday on his trip to Israel. The pictures below tell exactly the story that supporters of Israel are looking to see. Here he is, standing at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, touching it lightly — an appropriate and not too melodramatic show of both respect and support. But we’ve seen that picture from leaders and would be leaders before.

The new and more significant picture is of Senator McCain in the town of Sderot, in the Western Negev desert, hard up against the Gaza Strip. Gaza is, of course, the brilliant example of Palestinian self-government in all it’s glory. Poverty, chaos, the suppression of any and all rights for women and the escalation of the astonishing alchemy of turning living children into incendiary devices now characterize daily life in Gaza, under its democratically elected Hamas government.

As readers undoubtedly know, bombs have rained down – now almost daily – upon Sderot for the past 4 years. Israel has been fairly circumspect in its response, perhaps because the last thing it wants is further responsibility for that hellhole, which has, of course, become a hotbed of all Islamofascist movements. McCain’s visit is as concrete a demonstration as a presidential candidate can possibly make that he will not abandon Israel, and will respect Israel’s security needs. Of course many presidents begin that way, and end up pressuring Israel to betray it’s needs for evanescent gains in peace. John McCain made solid statements about the unlikelihood of any peace deal soon. While peace is surely the goal, as those rockets demonstrate, there is a long way till Israel and her hardline neighbors get to a place where serious negotiations are possible. Critics are always happy to to dismiss this kind of trip as grandstanding, photo-ops, and cynical manipulation. To be sure, there is some of that. But candidates choose what photo-ops they want, where they want to stand, and what messages they are sending. McCain gets high marks for this trip.