The Abject Failure Of The Obama Administration's Middle East Policy -- A Commentary

From the Weekly Standard:

Can anything else possibly go wrong for the Obama administration's Middle East policy? In the past ten days, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has twice reversed herself publicly on her attitude toward the Israeli settlements. Palestinians have refused her direct request to rejoin peace talks with Israel, and Palestinian Authority president Abbas has said he will not run for reelection. U.S.-Israel relations are in a state of frozen mistrust. The New York Times and Washington Post, among others, are calling Obama's policy a complete failure--in news stories as well as editorials. The only thing missing is a plague of locusts.

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My Comment: The focus is on the contradictory statements from Secretary of State Clinton on settlement construction, but the real focus should be on the Obama administration's approach towards the peace process. They always blamed the Bush administration's lack of enthusiasm for pursuing a Middle East process, but what they are now learning is that it is the complete lack of interest from both parties (Israel and the Palestinians) to compromise and to negotiate a lasting peace agreement.

The Israelis want to build settlements and to continue to grow, and the Palestinians want to get rid of the State of Israel. Both positions clearly makes any agreement next to impossible.