Words Matter

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Focus on Obama as Tensions Soar Across the Middle East,” shows that the world still looks to the United States for leadership, even as protesters in the Middle East view the Arab Spring as an event occurring largely without any impetus from us.

Meanwhile, Israel is caught between support for authoritarian governments who have been allies and democratic movements by demonstraters favoring the Palestinians. Even more ominously, the Palestinians themselves are starting to get the idea about the power of peaceful protests with thousands marching to the Israeli border from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon last week. If this movement continues, Israel will be faced with the same conundrum about how to react as the Arab authoritarian governments have been.

Against this backdrop comes President Obama’s speech at the State Department today. With his new-found confidence after the raid against Osama bin Laden, there is a lot of speculation about whether he will say anything to break the logjam in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, or espouse any overall policy toward the Arab world in general.

The situation in the Middle East is complicated by the recent pact between Fatah and Hamas among the Palestinians, with Israel refusing to have anything to do with the latter, branded solely as a terrorist organization. As usual, the labryinth of Middle East diplomacy places a severe test on any President.