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| Obama Steps Back Into a Conflict He Avoided | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| WASHINGTON — By sending Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East to put an American imprimatur on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, President Obama has thrust himself squarely into a conflict he has largely avoided over the past two years. | WASHINGTON — By sending Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East to put an American imprimatur on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, President Obama has thrust himself squarely into a conflict he has largely avoided over the past two years. |
| The stakes for him, and for the United States, are high. If Washington can help broker a deal to quell the violence, it could set the tone for Mr. Obama’s second-term relationship with three pivotal players in the region: Israel, the Palestinians and, most crucially, Egypt. | The stakes for him, and for the United States, are high. If Washington can help broker a deal to quell the violence, it could set the tone for Mr. Obama’s second-term relationship with three pivotal players in the region: Israel, the Palestinians and, most crucially, Egypt. |
| Mr. Obama has been unstinting in his public support of Israel over the past several days, while an American-financed antimissile system, Iron Dome, has destroyed scores of incoming Hamas rockets. The crisis holds the possibility of resetting the president’s often-fraught relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. | |
| But Mr. Obama has also reached out multiple times to Egypt’s recently elected president, Mohamed Morsi, urging him to play a calming role with Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza. As the United States gropes for a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Egypt, much will depend on how Mr. Morsi navigates this perilous moment. | But Mr. Obama has also reached out multiple times to Egypt’s recently elected president, Mohamed Morsi, urging him to play a calming role with Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza. As the United States gropes for a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Egypt, much will depend on how Mr. Morsi navigates this perilous moment. |
| At one level, Mrs. Clinton’s emergency mission seems deeply familiar – an American secretary of state jetting into yet another Middle East conflagration. Mrs. Clinton’s predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, spent her final weeks in office in 2009 desperately seeking an end to the last major outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. | At one level, Mrs. Clinton’s emergency mission seems deeply familiar – an American secretary of state jetting into yet another Middle East conflagration. Mrs. Clinton’s predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, spent her final weeks in office in 2009 desperately seeking an end to the last major outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. |
| But for Mr. Obama, such direct involvement is a sharp shift from his hands-off posture of the past two years. Having expended energy and prestige on a futile effort to restart peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians during his first two years in office, a frustrated Mr. Obama had largely pulled back from that effort – as did his secretary of state. | But for Mr. Obama, such direct involvement is a sharp shift from his hands-off posture of the past two years. Having expended energy and prestige on a futile effort to restart peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians during his first two years in office, a frustrated Mr. Obama had largely pulled back from that effort – as did his secretary of state. |
| When his special envoy to the region, George J. Mitchell, resigned in May 2011, Mr. Obama replaced him with David Hale, a career diplomat with a much lower profile and a less ambitious portfolio. Mrs. Clinton, having made frequent trips to Israel, stopped traveling there regularly. | When his special envoy to the region, George J. Mitchell, resigned in May 2011, Mr. Obama replaced him with David Hale, a career diplomat with a much lower profile and a less ambitious portfolio. Mrs. Clinton, having made frequent trips to Israel, stopped traveling there regularly. |
| Mr. Obama’s waning appetite for Middle East peacemaking coincided with his re-election campaign, which made any attempt to jump-start a moribund process seem politically unwise. His relationship with Mr. Netanyahu, which soured early on because of his demand that Israel stop building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, deteriorated further when Mr. Netanyahu appeared to favor Mitt Romney in the election. | Mr. Obama’s waning appetite for Middle East peacemaking coincided with his re-election campaign, which made any attempt to jump-start a moribund process seem politically unwise. His relationship with Mr. Netanyahu, which soured early on because of his demand that Israel stop building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, deteriorated further when Mr. Netanyahu appeared to favor Mitt Romney in the election. |
| For Mr. Obama, the timing of the Gaza eruption underscores what is likely to be a recurring tension in the second term: his desire to reorient America to Asia, while the ancient conflicts of the Middle East keep pulling the United States back to that region. | For Mr. Obama, the timing of the Gaza eruption underscores what is likely to be a recurring tension in the second term: his desire to reorient America to Asia, while the ancient conflicts of the Middle East keep pulling the United States back to that region. |
| The president made a historic postelection visit to Myanmar, capping a diplomatic opening that is part of a heightened American engagement in the region. But Mr. Obama found himself working the phones late at night with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Morsi, pleading for “de-escalation” in the Gaza conflict. | The president made a historic postelection visit to Myanmar, capping a diplomatic opening that is part of a heightened American engagement in the region. But Mr. Obama found himself working the phones late at night with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Morsi, pleading for “de-escalation” in the Gaza conflict. |
| Mrs. Clinton, too, has devoted much of her time to Asia, developing a fast friendship with the Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. But a day after Mrs. Clinton accompanied Mr. Obama on a visit to her lakeside home, she had to race to her plane and fly overnight to Tel Aviv to meet with Mr. Netanyahu and to travel to Ramallah to meet with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. | Mrs. Clinton, too, has devoted much of her time to Asia, developing a fast friendship with the Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. But a day after Mrs. Clinton accompanied Mr. Obama on a visit to her lakeside home, she had to race to her plane and fly overnight to Tel Aviv to meet with Mr. Netanyahu and to travel to Ramallah to meet with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. |
| For Mrs. Clinton, whose final days at the State Department seemed destined to be dominated by questions over the deadly attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, the fighting in Gaza may instead bring her term to a close on a more familiar theme. | For Mrs. Clinton, whose final days at the State Department seemed destined to be dominated by questions over the deadly attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, the fighting in Gaza may instead bring her term to a close on a more familiar theme. |
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: | |
| Correction: November 20, 2012 | |
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the Iron Dome antimissile system. It is American-financed, but not American-made. |