Last week in D.C., John Brennan, the White House adviser on counter-terrorism, unveiled the new Obama strategy for fighting terror threats. It retrenches from the idea of expensive on the ground counter-insurgency, and focuses more on hearts and minds. As CSM put it:
• Enhanced cooperation with allies and partners to defeat the extremist scourge.
• A sustained effort to restore America’s image and leadership in the world.
I caught almost the entire presentation on CSPAN (except for some of the Q-and-A) and Brennan was careful in his speech not to mention Israel and Palestine once. The liberal Center for American Progress welcomes the new approach– also without any reference to Israel and Palestine.
Israel and Palestine were at the heart of the Obama administration’s message to the Arab and Muslim worlds in the first year. Gen’ls Jim Jones and Mike Mullen and David Petraeus used to talk about the centrality of the issue all the time.
Now the Obama administration is scared to say a word about it. Why? Because they’ve achieved nothing on that front. And in an election season, they’re scared to suggest they care anything at all about fairness to the Palestinians…
