DOES UNCLE SAM HAVE A MIDDLE EAST POLICY?

By Schmoel Yitzhak

America's State Department employs many people at high salaries to craft foreign policy.

They're all overpaid; by a lot.

The fact is that Uncle Sam has no Middle East foreign policy because it has a president whose theme song must be "Undecided." (As in "He's undecided now so what is he gonna do?")

Barack Obama draws a "red line" on Syria's use of chemical weapons and then, conveniently, erases it. (Later, he had the gall to deny that he ever brought up a red line in the first place.)

The Chief Executive declares that he'll punish Dictator Assad and then the so-called premier of the Free World heads to the Rose Garden where he twiddles his thumbs. By the time he finishes that exercise in futility, Obama decides that he'd better cool it and, hey, maybe he shouldn't punish the man responsible for more than 1,000 deaths after all.

Policy? What policy?

When the Secretary of State launched his much-publicized attempt at negotiating Arab-Israeli peace, John Kerry distinctly warned that neither side would be asserting any pre-conditions. However, that sensible strategy was almost immediately scrapped when the Arabs threatened to walk out on the talks unless Israel met some conditions.

Foolishly, Benjamin Netanyahu acceded to the demand that Palestinian prisoners with blood on their hands be allowed to walk out of Israeli prisons. 

Further, it was agreed -- and this was a must demand from Kerry -- that negotiations would be held secretly with no leaks to the media. 

That was a laugh.

As you might have guessed the city of Ramallah has become Leak Central to such an extent that Israel finally has found it necessary to file a protest directly with Kerry. 

If I can find any Middle East policy anywhere in the current administration on Pennsylvania Avenue it can best be defined as "Screw Israel In Any Way Possible At All Costs."

Of course, nobody at Foggy Bottom ever would own up to this but enough facts on the ground -- and in the air -- underline the point. To wit:

* IRAN: The administration for years has been doing everything possible to undercut Israel's need to take out Tehran's nuclear program. Kerry & Company have employed stall after stall after stall while red lines come and go like the leaves of Autumn.

* EGYPT: Obama knew from the get-go that the Muslim Brotherhood came to power by manipulating the "first-true election in Egypt." The president knows that the Brotherhood -- and its close ally, Hamas -- aims to destroy Israel. Yet the administration is determined to support these anti-American, anti-Israel fanatics as if they are some sort of saints.

* SYRIA: The president said he was going to arm the rebels -- not that they're saints either; not by a long shot -- but as far as can be determined the anti-Assad folks have yet to receive a single bullet from America.

If Iran is backing Assad, and Obama knows that the Iranian leadership is evil, why does he keep kowtowing to Tehran? 

If the Muslim Brotherhood hates America, why is Obama against General Sisi who's trying to erase the Brotherhood?

The answers to these questions are simple enough. As a matter of fact they can simply be summed up by noting that Uncle Sam's Middle East foreign policy -- as much as there is one -- can be understood only by those who believe that the world is flat.