Obama Further Weakens America in the Middle East

United States foreign policy under President Obama has been a disappointing series of sound bites spoken to TV cameras while the rest of the world wrestles with grave problems for which America should be providing leadership - Iran, Libya and the rest of the Arab Spring aftermath, Egypt's new Islamist government, Greece, Chinese information technology piracy - and in the past week the Hamas - Israel confrontation in Gaza. Obama has offered no leadership for any of these crises, preferring to fall back on the killing of Osama bin Laden as his only requirement in foreign affairs, without acknowledging that it was largely the plan put in place by President Bush and carried out by the US military that led to OBL's death. But, this week Obama has given a new meaning to leading from behind. He chose to visit Mayanmar-Burma and Cambodia while Israel was being bombarded by Hamas rockets fired from civilian enclaves. His only public comment has been to say it is "preferrable" that things don't escalate, leaving the UN Secretary General and Egyptian president Morsi to try to broker a ceasefire. His phone calls could in no way make up for the complete absence of American diplomacy on the ground. Obama's silence in effect opened the way - rapidly taken - for Hamas partisans to lead the negotiations and for regional Arab leaders to beat a path to Gaza in support of the terrorist Hamas regime. Do not, dear readers, think that this was anything but a fact-based example of Obama's guiding principle - sideline the United States and abandon her leadership role to others. His gambit in East Asia over, he is on his way back to Washington. Before boarding Air Force One he decided to send US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had been with him in Asia, to Tel-Aviv and, presumably, Egypt and the West Bank to talk with the key players...SEVEN days after the crisis began. In Israel today, Secretary Clinton said the United States is pushing for a "durable outcome" promoting stability following Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, with little mention of Hamas'continuing rocket barrage on Israel civilian areas. She said she "RUSHED" to the region, sent by President Obama to help forge a cease-fire, after a week of fighting between Israel and Gaza militants, one that would "recognize the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike." Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu stood beside her while she read her statement. Netanyahu must have been wondering why his only friend in the conflict had taken so long, rather like a western film where the Cavalry arrives just in time, except that today the Cavalry was only one person who was a week late and a Dollar short, as Americans say of failed efforts. Netanyahu said Israel would welcome a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but threatened further military activity, saying he is ready to take "whatever action" is necessary. Not only has Obama abandoned the Muslim and Arab Middle East to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, he is close to alienating Israel, the only friend America has left in the region. If this is what American foreign policy is meant to be, if this is how America treats her closest friends, then I am lost.