Misreading the White House on the Mideast

There are few things on which Israelis and Palestinians can find common ground these days, but both sides readily agree on the common refrain, "The United States does not understand the Middle East." However, increasingly it appears to be the reverse: Israel and the Palestinians do not seem to understand Washington.

In meetings with various Israeli and Palestinian officials in the region last month, as Hosni Mubarak held onto the last days of his 30-year regime, Israelis and Palestinians were adamant that the U.S. was mishandling its public statements in response to the unrest in Egypt, had fumbled the Middle East peace process since taking office, and faced diminishing influence in the region as a result -- seemingly confirmed by both sides unwillingness to budge from deeply entrenched positions despite the United States' best efforts.

To be sure, there is some basis for these statements insofar as the Obama administration has made tactical errors in the past two years. The view that Israel could accept a blanket cessation of settlement activity if only the United States called for it, and that doing so would lead to a resumption of meaningful negotiations, proved to be overly simplistic. But now Israelis and Palestinians are the ones projecting too simplistic a view of the United States that has been peddled from both sides of the political spectrum.

Click here to read the column in The Huffington Post