Has Obama Changed His Israel Policy?

Former prime minister Ariel Sharon used to say, "What you see from here, you don't see from there" – meaning that there is a difference between how you understand the Middle East before you are in a position of power and how you perceive it when you are in office.

Apparently, this truism also could be applied to the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama came into office with strong preconceptions about foreign policy and especially about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Generally, he sought to be a transformative president in all areas: he wanted to transform America internally as well as America’s relations with the world, even if it meant that in doing so he would create tensions with its traditional allies, like Britain and Israel. In his address in Cairo on June 4, 2009, he spoke about the need for “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.”