Hamas Rockets Obliterate Obama's 'Hope and Change' in the Middle East

Frank Gaffney's slamming the Obama administration's Arab appeasement policies, "Middle East melting down into ‘Obamawar’." (via Memeorandum).

And Gaffney, who leftists constantly attack as a "racist" and a "neocon," isn't the only one. Check the Los Angeles Times, "Gaza conflict threatens Obama's plans for Mideast diplomacy":

WASHINGTON — The increasingly bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is threatening the Obama administration's plans to reinvigorate its Middle East diplomacy, creating new obstacles across the region as the president prepares for his second term.

With negotiators struggling to craft a cease-fire agreement, diplomats and experts say the strife is hampering administration efforts to help resolve the civil war in Syria, improve relations with Egypt's new government, support moderate Palestinian leaders and check Iran's growing ambitions.

In a region thrown into turmoil by the "Arab Spring" uprisings, U.S. support for Israel and its right to defend itself has been one of the few constants. That has not changed, despite the well-publicized rocky relationship between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But by all accounts, the damage to U.S. influence in the region is likely to grow if Israel sends ground troops into Gaza to stop the Hamas militant group from firing rockets into Israel.

"The bottom line is that this will poison everything the United States is trying to do in the region," said Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Institution's Doha Center in Qatar.

President Obama has spoken repeatedly with leaders in Israel and Egypt, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has spoken with other officials while she and Obama went ahead with a visit to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia that was intended to emphasize the administration's efforts to refocus U.S. foreign policy on Asia.

Ben Rhodes, the president's deputy national security advisor, told reporters on the trip that the U.S. position is that "those nations in the region, particularly nations that have influence over Hamas, and that's principally Egypt and Turkey, also Qatar… that those nations need to use that influence to de-escalate the conflict. And de-escalation has to begin with, again, an end to rocket fire from Gaza."

U.S. officials don't have direct contact with Hamas, which they consider a terrorist organization.

Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to both Israel and Egypt, said the crisis appeared close to a tipping point. If Israel sends armored columns into Gaza, Washington would be caught between pressing Israel to stop a conflict that has Obama's support, or being seen in the Arab world as complicit in the bloodshed.

"We will be put in the same corner as Israel," said Kurtzer, now with Princeton University. "This will be an extremely awkward position."

While U.S. officials have sought to avoid judging Israeli tactics, Obama said at a news conference Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand, that it was preferable for Israel to avoid sending troops into Gaza, for the sake of both Palestinians and Israelis.

Washington has struggled to regain its influence in the Middle East since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 brought to power populist Islamist governments that are more wary of Washington and more responsive to pro-Palestinian public opinion.

Struggled?

Jeez, you'd think Baracky built some creds with his Middle East apology tour? Folks sure thought that Cairo speech was da bomb, IYKWIMAITYD!

RTWT.