Will Americans Learn What Israelis Already Know?

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July 26, 2022, 2 PM ET

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To the Editor:

Walter Russell Mead's scathing op-ed "Can Biden Correct Obama's Mideast Errors?" (July 16) makes an oft-neglected point that U.S. politicians and advisers must absorb: Their liberal bromides, brewed up by human-rights and anti-Israel activists, are increasingly despised in the region itself.

"Arabs and Israelis alike remember the serial failures of the Obama administration," writes Mr. Mead. They wondered, as the Biden administration dug in, "if the days of condescension and arrogance had returned."

Mr. Mead is right. It is time for know-it-all U.S. policy makers to recognize the Democrats' terrible record from Libya and Egypt to Syria and Iran and culminating in Afghanistan. Instead of lecturing Israelis, Saudis and others, they should start learning from them and their bitter experiences. Maybe then the U.S. can again develop worthy policies.

{Reposted from the MEF site}