The Middle East is perhaps the most precarious political situation on the face of the earth, and the Obama administration has no one better to send in than "Crazy Uncle Joe" Biden? Where's Hillary Clinton when you need her?
The Obama administration could sure use some good news right about now, and a jump-start to peace talks in the Middle East would have been a nice foreign relations win. Those hopes were dashed when Israel announced a plan to build 1,600 new settlements in east Jerusalem, land it has controlled since the 1967 war. The plan infuriated Arabs, who hate the idea of Israel controlling the city of Jerusalem.
Israel's announcement, just a day before Biden meets with Palestinian leaders, was no mistake. No one plays hardball like the Israelis, and this is their way of giving the Obama administration notice that they aren't going to cater to the demands of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. They could have waited for Biden to leave before making the announcement, but now the administration is forced to choose a side. Obama's been playing lip service to both sides, and has downplayed criticism of violence from Arab groups like Hamas. The announcement also prevents Biden from making any concessions or promises to the Palestinians, which kills any chance of a PR victory for Obama with the trip. Israel wasn't willing to pay the price just so Obama could divert attention away from problems back home.
The U.N. has called Israel's new settlement plans illegal, but they never liked Israel anyway. Biden has already tipped the administration's hand by condemning the move, but there's not much he can do about it. They know land concessions won't work: both Clinton and Bush II tried to broker deals with no success, because the Arabs refuse to accept Israel's presence anywhere in the Middle East. Now that Israel has raised the stakes and forced the President to see the realities of the situation, one wonders if Obama will bow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next time he sees him.
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