SEND BACK THE CLOWNS – AT 7:45 P.M. ET:  The damage done by Barack Hussein Obama Jr. to our relationship with Israel is already having its negative effects, as anyone familiar with the Mideast knew it would.

Despite statements by both the U.S. and Israel that progress was made during Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Washington, Palestinian spokesmen now claim that no progress was made.  This is the old Arab technique of moving the goalposts.  Give them something that they hint will satisfy them, and they immediately move the goalposts and ask for more.  Say there's progress, and they declare no progress.  The president, who has no real experience in foreign policy, doesn't know this or doesn't care.

Whatever one thinks of Benjamin Netanyahu, and my feelings are mixed, he is the elected leader of an ally, as is Gordon Brown (UK) and Nicolas Sarkozy (France.)  All these men have been humiliated at one time or another by Barack Obama.  Netanyahu should not have been subjected to the constant humiliations he was handed during his trip to Washington.  Even some writers who've been critical of Israeli policy have been appalled.  We watched today as the foreign minister of Pakistan, a nation with so-so relations with the United States, was given the dignity of a joint news conference with Secretary Clinton, a routine gesture of respect denied to the prime minister of Israel.

Obama clearly has a hostility toward American allies, and a certain sympathy for our enemies.  That fits in well with his profoundly left-wing upbringing and, despite all denials, his Muslim heritage.  We can respect that heritage, and demand that it not be used against the president in racist or unsavory ways, but we have a perfect right to discuss it.  Believe me, if Obama were an evangelical Christian, we'd be hearing about it from CNN every day. 

So now we have a mess with Israel.  It is, I fear, the first step toward Obama trying to impose his own settlement on the Arab-Israeli conflict, something he may dream will get him a second Nobel Peace Prize.  (I can just see him standing up there in Oslo saying, "This one I earned.") 

The United States is at its best in the Mideast when it gives Israel the confidence, through our backing, to allow the Israelis to demonstrate reasonable and mature flexibility.  But Washington has now pulled the rug out from under Israel, in an act of naked appeasement toward the Palestinians, who are divided and aimless.  Let's see how our national interest is served.

March 25, 2010