Obama Diplomacy and Israel

Almost lost in all the serious news coming out of the Arab world is the recent UN Security council vote on Israeli settlements expansion in the West Bank. The vote was against Israel and only the United States veto could save the day for the Israeli government’s settlements policy.
We have heard such debates and votes often in the past, but this time it was the diplomatic posturing that made all the difference.
According to Foreign Policy magazine, the United States told Arab governments that the US would support the Security Council vote against Israel if the resolution were in the form of a “presidential statement” condemning the settlements as illegal and a serious obstacle to peace in the region. 
That an American president would even consider making such a commitment is unconscionable. It represents the inept and naive foreign policy that President Obama dabbles in under the name of peacemaking. If he had chosen to speak directly to Israel and the Europeans in a private effort to bring pressure on Israel to stop its expansion in the West Bank, at least Israel would have been saved from the frontal attack of its only real defender against annihilation at the hands of Arab extremists. As it was, Obama hung Israel out to dangle in the winds of illogical hatred.
Whatever your position about the settlements, they are not the problem. They are the symptom. Palestine, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas are determined to use the settlements as an excuse not to negotiate with Israel. If Israel were to abandon the 60,000 Israelis in the settlements and force them to return to the Israel “mainland” now, what would it produce? More delays as the other side seeks another reason not to negotiate.
President Obama has once more not understood.
Israel does not need to be attacked and weakened by its partner. It needs strong American support and a concerted effort from the US to get negotiations started. The longer we delay, the worse the problem will become.
Israel has said that the settlements are negotiable, but not before talks begin. Simple logic demands that Israel’s largest bargaining chip not be tossed into the other side’s court before the negotiation starts.
Israel understands this. Why does Mr. Obama not understand it? The blunt answer is that he is incompetent to direct American foreign policy.