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With Obama's Israel Visit, an Opportunity
(Wall Street Journal) Ehud Barak - President Obama's visit to Israel offers the opportunity for new strategic thinking. Over the past two years, a geopolitical earthquake has shattered a generations-old regional order. What is replacing that order are unstable, transformational regimes or, even worse, failed states. One important lesson: It is unwise to rely on "the world" to act when a man-made disaster is unfolding. Consider Syria. More than 70,000 have been killed. Yet the international community has shown neither unity of purpose nor the political will to act. The root cause of the problems in the Middle East is not the failure to solve the conflict with the Palestinians. Even if a peace agreement with the Palestinians had been signed and sealed a long time ago, the Muslim Brotherhood would still have come to power in Egypt, Syria would still be mired in a bloody civil war, and Iran would still be pursuing nuclear capabilities and hegemony in the Persian Gulf. The writer was Israel's minister of defense from 2007 until this week.