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Has U.S. Policy on Israel Changed?
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Zalman Shoval - President Obama came into office with strong preconceptions about foreign policy and especially about the Arab-Israeli conflict. The main result of the administration's new policy was to encourage the Palestinians to take more hard-line positions. Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas began to insist on preconditions for direct negotiations which never existed before. The Obama administration now appears to have concluded that the tactics it employed against the Netanyahu government were self-defeating. But it is premature to establish that it has revised its overall strategic outlook. The writer served as Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. from 1990 to 1993 and from 1998 to 2000.