Has Obama Given Up on the MidEast?

The very first question at President Barack Obama’s town hall event in Tampa, FL, yesterday underscored the political foolhardiness of his omission of the MidEast peace process from the State of the Union speech on Wednesday night. A young woman who had worked in his campaign came at him with both barrels over the human-rights situation associated with Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. His response showed he was totally unprepared for the question:

“The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued a region for centuries, and it’s an issue that elicits a lot of passions, as you heard,” Obama said. “Here’s my view: Israel is one of our strongest allies. It is a vibrant democracy. It shares links with us in all sorts of ways. It is critical for us, and I will never waver from Israel’s security. … What is also true is that the plight of the Palestinians is something that we have to pay attention to.”

The best line he could muster, according to Politico: “I make no apology for trying to fix stuff that’s hard.”

Watch it here on CBS News:

A new piece in Time magazine looks at a group of policy experts, convened regularly by the United States Institute of Peace, to funnel advice to Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell. Their general view:

“The status quo is not sustainable,” says a senior member of the group. “International tolerance of Israeli policies is eroding and Palestinian democrats are coming under increasing pressure. The prospects for a two-state solution are eroding as well as Palestinians lose confidence that peace is possible.”

…. One senior member of the group, expressing his own opinion, says that in the wake of Mitchell’s failure last weekend, the Administration has two options: taking a “minimalist approach,” in which the U.S. goes through the motions of pushing for peace for appearances’ sake, without actually driving a process that could achieve it; or putting specific ideas on the table about the contours of a final peace agreement.”

Looks like Obama has opted for going through the motions thus far. Does he lack the political will to take on AIPAC, the neocon lobby, and a major U.S. ally – hard stuff indeed.