Does Clinton Scare the Middle East?

Arabs, particularly Palestinians, are nervous that Obama seems prepared to give the job of top diplomat to a senator from New York who has spent eight years cultivating her pro-Israel constituency and would continue, they think, a lack of U.S. evenhandedness in refereeing the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Because of what they regard as her bellicose rhetoric toward Iran and her initial support for the Iraq war, some see her selection as a sign that Obama intends to conduct a more hawkish foreign policy than he suggested during the campaign.

Let’s face it people, the United States serves many masters. We are beholden to so many countries for so many reasons that the mere volume of diplomatic stratagem required to appease everyone would stop a team of oxen. Can we spend this century digging ourselves out of the quagmires we entangled ourselves in during the last?