Mr Obama took office with an ambitious plan. After much squandering of American blood and treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan, he would reach out to Muslims, notably in a June 2009 address in Cairo. His stated aim was to reduce the antagonism of Muslims towards the West and Israel. If his outreach succeeded, Israel would be left safer, and so might make concessions in the Middle East peace process. The scheme was elegant and logical. It also failed, leaving Mr Obama authorising more drone strikes on Islamic militants than George Bush, and nursing abidingly awful relations with Israel's government.
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