Obama "clarifies" his position

As President Obama starts his hastily arranged state visit to Britain and Ireland (James Delingpole's take on the subject is completely accurate in my opinion), Hot Air reminds us that before leaving he had tried to clarify his position on the Middle East (well, on Israel and her relationship with Hamas and Fatah).

Basing his account on Philip Klein's report, Ed Morrissey comes to the conclusion that

So, we can’t expect Israel to try to negotiate with Hamas, but we can blame them for a failure to try to negotiate with Hamas? Is the US position that Israel has “no option” but to negotiate with terrorists that no one expects them to negotiate with?

Somewhere in these two statements is an explanation of smart power, I’m sure.

Uh-huh! This is, of course, what a number of "liberal" i.e. pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli analysts take when they try to explain why Israel is at fault for not wanting to be destroyed. Somehow one expects something better from the President of the United States, particularly one who was billed as being ultra-smart and ultra-knowledgeable. It's not like this was something difficult like the number of states in his country.