"Dog barks but the caravan moves on"

In this piece by Barry Rubin from the Jerusalem Post, he explains why President Obama's mindset is not well suited for the tricky snake pit of the Arab Middle East-- a place where the term "straight shooter" is never seen as a compliment.

"Something very big - but predictable - is starting to happen: The Palestinians, and no doubt soon a lot of the Arab world, are turning against Obama. He will find shortly that unless he gives everything and asks for nothing, they will soon be calling him another Bush.
The fact that Obama is perceived as weak doesn't help him any.
Cairo speech, UN speech, distancing from Israel, engaging radicals? All these things will get him nowhere. Help him on Iran? Well they weren't going to do that any way. The hostility is partly due, of course, to the interests of the Arab rulers, partly to the radicalism of the opinion makers there, partly to the Islamists who always outbid their incumbent rivals and need anti-Americanism as one of their main tools to stir passions.
This is how the Middle East works. But many in the mass media, academia and Western governments (especially the Obama administration) have absolutely no idea. They basically accept the concept that if you are nice enough, give enough and bash Israel enough, the Arabic-speaking political forces - and maybe even Iran - will love you and be nice to you, or at least leave you alone."