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Why Is Obama So Tough on Israel and Timid on Syria?

(Washington Post) Jackson Diehl - One of the hallmarks of the Arab Spring has been the emergence of a new and more modest American foreign policy. The Obama administration has insisted on not taking the lead in promoting democratic change. Yet on a Middle Eastern front that has remained mostly quiet in 2011 - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - the position of the U.S. is: a) it possesses a detailed solution; b) action must be taken immediately; and c) it doesn't matter whether the people concerned - Israelis and Palestinians - are agreeable or ready. Obama has spoken in public on Syria just twice since its massacres began three months ago. But he chose to spell out U.S. terms for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations without the agreement of Israel's prime minister, on the eve of meeting him at the White House and with only a few hours' notice - arguably the most high-handed presidential act in U.S.-Israeli relations since the Eisenhower administration. What's extraordinary about Obama's initiative is not its details, which don't differ meaningfully from the ideas of several of Netanyahu's predecessors as prime minister. It is, rather, its superpower chutzpah - the brazen disregard for the views and political posture of this Israeli government, and the fecklessness and disarray of the current Palestinian leadership. Never mind, goes the implicit Euro-American line: We will make this happen.
2011-06-20 00:00:00
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