Obama the Amateur. Carter redux, only worse

I have commented in earlier blog posts (for example, here) on President Obama's botched Mideast policy.

Mr Obama has pressured dictators to step down and promoted in their place so-called "democratic" movements, which have often turned out to be controlled by radical Islamist elements that are less friendly to the West. For example, in Egypt, Obama pressured Hosni Mubarak to step down and then supported the Egyption elections that installed a member of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi, as President of Egypt. As Reuters reported at the time, Israeli leaders were shocked at Obama's naivete:

One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks. Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?" "The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."

Now, as predicted, the new Islamist regime in Egypt has abandoned Mubarak's conciliatory attitude towards Israel, and declared its emphatic support for the leaders of Hamas, who, emboldened by their new found support in Cairo, have escalated attacks against Israel and launched hundreds of missiles from Gaza into the heartland of the Jewish state. As WSJ reports:

On Thursday, Mr. Morsi ordered Egypt's prime minister to lead a delegation into Gaza on Friday, Egyptian state television reported. The visit would pose an unprecedented challenge to Israel ... Mr. Morsi's activist response to Israeli-Palestinian violence marks a stark reversal from the more hands-off policies of his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. ... For many Palestinians, a more supportive government in Egypt would be their first sense of change from an Arab Spring that until now has largely passed them by. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the two retain close ties. ... Many Israelis and Palestinians argue that it was the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that helped embolden Palestinian factions, including some elements of Hamas, to take a more defiant and confrontational approach to Israel that helped trigger this current flare-up.

The Washington Post writes:

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi signaled the extent of the shift on Friday when he sent his prime minister to Gaza in a show of solidarity with Hamas. The move was a radical break from the policy of Morsi’s ousted predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. ... Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil toured Gaza alongside Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a longtime Mubarak foe, in the highest-profile Egyptian visit to Gaza since Hamas took power in 2007. Morsi, meanwhile, warned Israel of a “high price” for continued military operations in the coastal enclave. “Egypt will not leave Gaza alone,” Morsi said in a speech to a crowd of worshippers at a mosque on Cairo’s outskirts. “I speak on behalf of all of the Egyptian people in saying that Egypt today is different from Egypt yesterday, and the Arabs today are different from the Arabs of yesterday.” ... Morsi, a longtime Muslim Brotherhood leader, came to power this year in elections in which he defeated a candidate with long-standing ties to Egypt’s military, which under Mubarak was a staunch defender of the nation’s peace treaty with Israel.

In sum, Mr Obama's "lead-from-behind" policies have overthrown our ally Mubarak, who played a stabilizing role in the region, and replaced him with the aggressive, radical, Hamas-friendly Morsi regime on Israel's doorstep. As a result, the Palestinians in Gaza have been emboldened and are now attacking Israel once again. And now, the Morsi government's statements have become so bellicose that we should not be surprised if hostilities break out between Israel and Egypt. At the same time, Mr Obama has failed to derail Iran's attempts to obtain nuclear weapons. Syria sinks further into chaos. Al Qaeda is growing stronger in Mali. Our consulate in Benghazi is a pile of smoking ruins and the next step in the deterioration of the situation could very well be further attacks on American embassies and consulates throughout the region. Finally, at this very moment of intensifying chaos, we are in the process of drawing down our troops throughout the Middle East so that we will have no means to project American power and influence there.

Obama, the Amateur. Carter redux, only worse.