Couldn’t have put it better myself….

Contrary to what some critics think, the reason some of us keep writing about U.S. Middle East policy is not because we have some weird obsession with Israel, Jewish-Americans, Christian Zionists, or whatever. It is rather because the Middle East is an important strategic area, the United States is in deep trouble there, our recent ...

Walt-Steve-foreign-policy-columnist20
Walt-Steve-foreign-policy-columnist20
Stephen M. Walt
By , a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University.

Contrary to what some critics think, the reason some of us keep writing about U.S. Middle East policy is not because we have some weird obsession with Israel, Jewish-Americans, Christian Zionists, or whatever. It is rather because the Middle East is an important strategic area, the United States is in deep trouble there, our recent policies have been mostly failures, and the various problems we face there soak up an enormous amount of time, attention, and resources. If we can get our policy straightened out for the good of all concerned, I'd be happy to turn to other topics.

Contrary to what some critics think, the reason some of us keep writing about U.S. Middle East policy is not because we have some weird obsession with Israel, Jewish-Americans, Christian Zionists, or whatever. It is rather because the Middle East is an important strategic area, the United States is in deep trouble there, our recent policies have been mostly failures, and the various problems we face there soak up an enormous amount of time, attention, and resources. If we can get our policy straightened out for the good of all concerned, I’d be happy to turn to other topics.

That said, this piece by Gary Kamiya in Salon is admirably clear-eyed and captures the Obama administration’s dilemma very well. Enjoy.

Stephen M. Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University. Twitter: @stephenwalt

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