On January 16, [...] a team of senior military officers [...] arrived at the Pentagon to brief JCS Chairman Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. The 33-slide 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM's mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region, and that Mitchell himself was (as a senior Pentagon officer later bluntly described it) "too old, too slow...and too late."[...]
The January Mullen briefing was unprecedented. No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue; which is why the briefers were careful to tell Mullen that their conclusions followed from a December 2009 tour of the region where, on Petraeus's instructions, they spoke to senior Arab leaders. "Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling," a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. "America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding."
And recently Joe Biden went to Israel, perhaps to put Israel on notice, as well as remind us that Israel is our best friend, followed immediately by an increase in Israel's expansion into the West Bank.
[A]ccording to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth,[Biden] engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister.[...] "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."
And in the immortal words of Dick Cheney, I expect he was answered with, "So what?"
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Gregg Carlstrom answers the question, "Does America's "special relationship" with Israel serve its strategic interests?"
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....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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