Obama's understanding of the Middle East rivals his understanding of economics, negotiation theory, national defense, etc.

Obama: Settlement expansion could be ‘dangerous’ WASHINGTON (JTA) -- President Obama said additional Israeli settlement building "embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous." In an interview Wednesday with Fox News in China, Obama said Israel's decision to approve the construction of 900 new apartments on the outskirts of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo was not helpful to peace talks. "The situation in the Middle East is very difficult, and I've said repeatedly and I'll say again, Israel's security is a vital national interest to the United States, and we will make sure they are secure," Obama said. "I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel's security. I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbors. I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous." On Tuesday, in a statement, the White House said it was "dismayed" by the decision on Gilo, which was made by the Jerusalem municipality.//
****President Obama's statement is almost farcical. The "bitterness" of Palestinians dates back at least to the 1920s ( when their first complaint --called Naqba, interestingly enough --was their separation from Syria and into the British Mandate since historically they considered themselves Syrian.) They have steadfastly resisted any Jewish state since then ( and even the presence of Jews, except in Dhimmi status ).The putative wish for a state of "their own" only arose with Yasser Arafat's imaginative creation of a "Palestinian" polity with claims of a unique history, language, religion, and culture. It was not in evidence when Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem (which it ethnically cleansed of Jews, by the way, between 1948 and 1967.)The contribution of settlements to their "bitterness" is nil, not because the settlement issue is unimportant to them but because the vastly greater source of their bitterness is the presence of Jews in the Middle East, at all.
Obama's focusing on the settlement issue has made it the current salient issue for Abbas et al but, absent Obama and his promise to pressure the Israelis, it was not even an impediment to negotiations a year ago. Failure to acknowledge and accept the existence of so much as one majority-Jewish state is the root of all the problems and, until several generations of Arabs grow up without the incitement that continues to this day, there will be no peace, no matter what concessions Israelis make.
One suspects that Obama's "assurance" that "Israel's security is a vital national interest to the United States" is not worth much. Given myriad actions and associations, there are those who wonder about his commitment to the security of the United States.****