Politico to go: What Bush understood about the middle East and Obama still doesn't get

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It was three years ago; America elected a president who was going to repair our relationship with the world, particularly the Muslim world, after eight years of that “cowboy” George W. Bush. Regretfully, our “relationship repairer-in-chief” has presided over an increased divide between with the Muslim nations, and managed to create a rift with Israel, our most reliable ally in the region.
King Abdullah of Jordan, a long-time ally, told the Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth that Obama has a lot to learn about being an ally, and seemed to indicate that the United States is no longer trusted by the Muslim states:
Weymouth: It is astounding that Tantawi [head of Egypt’s military ruling
council] did not take President Obama’s call for hours the night the Israelis were trapped in their embassy in Egypt.
Abdullah:The feeling I got from the Egyptian leadership is that if they stick [their] necks out, they will just get lambasted like [former president Hosni] Mubarak did. So I think they are playing safe by just keeping their heads down, which I think . . . sometimes allows things to get out of control. . . . Tantawi thinks there is too much pressure on him.
Weymouth: From the streets?
Abdullah: No, from the West.
Weymouth: Do you and other leaders in this area believe you cannot rely on the U.S.?
Abdullah:I think everybody is wary of dealing with the West. . . . Looking at how quickly people turned their backs on Mubarak, I would say that most people are going to try and go their own way. I think there is going to be less coordination with the West and therefore a chance of more misunderstandings. Egypt is trying to develop its own way of moving forward.

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