President Obama came into office pledging a new approach
to the Middle East. We were told that his middle name —
Hussein — would give him unprecedented entrée to the
corridors of power in that troubled region — and to the Arab
street.
We thought a Mideast policy could not be more confused,
more feckless than Jimmy Carter’s. Carter acceded to (if he did not
welcome) the ouster of the Shah in 1979. The Shah was horrible in
Carter’s eyes. Well, the Ayatollah Khomeini and his mullahs who
replaced the Shah were horribler. And still
are.
Mr. Obama pledged an “open hand” to the mullahs in Tehran.
It was spat on.
When thousands of young Iranians massed in the streets
demanding democracy, it looked like a Hope and Change rally. But
this administration turned its back on them and promised to avoid
“meddling” in the mullahs’ affairs.
President Obama respects Iran’s sovereignty, we were told
at that time. Iran, of course, respects nobody’s sovereignty. Ask
the Lebanese. Especially the Maronite Christians there.
When he went to London, Mr. Obama bowed to the King of
Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah is an absolute monarch whose rule is
maintained by the sword. Dissidents are beheaded — usually on
Fridays after Mosque.
No Jews, no Christians are permitted in the Kingdom. But
we have nonetheless had an arms-length relationship with this
desert despot and his extended family.
Now, we read, that Abdullah is so upset with President
Obama that he is extending feelers to Moscow and Beijing. Abdullah
is afraid that the “Arab Spring” spoken of by the President may
turn out to be not so much a spring season as a bed spring
— ready to bounce longtime rulers right out of bed.
Egypt. President Obama made a point of going to al-Azhar
Mosque to deliver his overture to what he calls “the Muslim world.”
Strange, he never talks about a Christian world. Nor, in choosing
Egypt as his venue, did he acknowledge the fact that one-tenth of
Egyptians are Coptic Christians. They found it hard to hang on
before the President of the United States referred to
their country as the Muslim world.
President Mubarak seemed to be firmly in control when Mr.
Obama delivered his Cairo speech. For thirty years, Hosni Mubarak
had maintained a cold peace — but a peace nonetheless — with
neighboring Israel. Now, in the face of massive street
demonstrations orchestrated in part by the murderously anti-Israel
Muslim Brotherhood, the Obama administration gave Mubarak full
support, then less than full support, and finally a sharp shove off
stage.
If Mubarak’s rule was horrible, we may soon find that a
new alliance between an Egyptian military we fund and the Muslim
Brotherhood even horribler.
What was the point of going to a nest of Muslim
Brotherhood activity to deliver that 2009 Obama address if not to
puff up their stature and their influence? Osama bin Laden tells us
that Arabs like to go with “the strong horse.” Did Mr. Obama saddle
up Mubarak or the Muslim Brotherhood as the strong horse with that
Cairo speech?
President Obama delivered another Mideast speech, this one
in Turkey. That nation — a member of NATO since its founding —
was once viewed as the strongest U.S. ally in a region dominated by
hostile Muslim regimes. Culturally Muslim but politically secular,
Turkey once cooperated quietly but effectively with Israel. No
more.
Prime Minister Erdogan’s government has lurched toward
Islamism. Erdogan recently promoted a flotilla whose object was to
break the Israeli arms embargo of Gaza.
Now, we come to the only country in the Middle
East that has been a constant U.S. ally, that is the only
functioning democracy, that is the only
political system in the region where religious minority
rights have any standing — Israel. We cannot quote any Obama
speeches to the Knesset, but he recently met with Israeli President
Shimon Peres in the White House. He
said:
“…with the winds of change blowing through the Arab world,
it’s more urgent than ever that we try to seize the opportunity to
create a peaceful solution between the Palestinians and the
Israelis.”
Those winds of change prove the Arab-Israeli conflict is
not the cause of discontent on the Arab street. This whole
region-wide ferment began in December when a poor Tunisian street
vendor — distraught at not being able to pay off crooked cops who
demanded protection money — set himself on fire. And that flame
spread across the Middle East. No Israelis. No
Palestinians.
In the midst of vast changes, Mr. Obama is able to derive
precisely the wrong message. His policies are not only
horribler than Carter’s, they are his horriblur. He has
surely brought change to the Middle East. It’s now the
Muddle East.
