Obama’s Dubious Hope and Change Middle East Policy

VERY LITTLE CHANGE TO HOPE FOR

President Obama waltzed into the mill ennia-old Middle East con flict yesterday peddling the Hope and Change that has carried him so very far in American politics.

But if he thinks his campaign buzzwords will solve any problems in the land of Reality and Intractability, he will surely join the long list of failed peace-lovers around the world whose visions of tranquility in the Promised Land have crashed.

As Obama bends to sign onto more and more of his predecessor's evil policies (the ones he campaigned against for years), Obama is turning into one of those Ditto Heads so loathed by the left.

He's keeping the war machine rolling, now thinks the military tribunals are just grand, and is instituting a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the government's past use of torture.

All that's left of Obama's soaring campaign promises, it seems, is Hope and a little Change.

But in the Middle East, Hope and Change don't walk around without an army of bodyguards. Early indications suggest Obama might not get this.

After his meeting yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on for an hour longer than planned, Obama declared the hot air an "extraordinarily productive series of conversations."

Really?

As aides touted the meeting's great success at going over the allotted time limit, a reporter ticked off a list of grave realities from the Middle East that soured all the good vibes set by always-jokey White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Why, ABC's Jake Tapper wondered, would Obama feel such optimism other than that he's just an optimistic guy?

"Well, that's a good start," Gibbs replied brightly, sounding like a cross between White House spokesman and stand-up comic.

And why, exactly, is now such a "historic opportunity" for the peace process, as deemed by Obama?

Does it have something to do with the fact that there's a certain star risen in the West?

Well, that and some Hope and some Change might get you elected leader of the free world, but it doesn't necessarily get you peace in the Promised Land.

Charles Hurt, NY Post, 5/19/09