Will Obama Read Indyk's Book?

Obama is touted as a big reader--will he read Indyk's book, “Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East"?

Rick Richman quotes a passage that Obama should keep in mind, about the attempt during the Clinton presidency to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict in order to bring reform and political 'change' to the region:

It would prove to be a flawed approach . . . At the time, we thought making peace would end the terrorism because we would be turning the key sponsors of terror in the Middle East heartland – Arafat and Asad – into peacemakers. This was another example of our naïveté. Just as Mubarak and Fahd had an interest in diverting American attention to peacemaking rather than internal reform of their societies, we would discover that Arafat and Asad were quite capable of talking peace and encouraging terror at the same time.

We were wed to an idealistic vision of a new, more peaceful Middle East. The leaders of the old Middle East had something else in mind for us. [Page 58]

Let's hope that bringing former Clinton appointees into his administration does not mean that Obama is wed to the same faulty ideas.

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