As’ad AbuKhalil (Angry Arab) shares my fascination with the disappearance of “Arabists” and realists from the making of U.S. policy in the Middle East. Here is his latest take on why Obama will only blunder in his Egyptian policy.

Up to the Carter administration, there were Middle East experts in government who could weigh in with their assessment of US interests in the Middle East, free of the considerations of what is good for Israel and its wars and massacres. It is fair to say that this is one of the most major challenges for the US in the region since WWII but there is not a single Middle East expert in the government who can give an assessment of US interests without being obsessed with “what is good for Israel” here. This is why the Israeli calculations are dominating the crisis decision-making at the White House, and the tone and substance of rhetoric. I mean, with people like Feltman and Shapiro (one at State and another at NSC–and both are Zionist fanatics), there is no Richard Parker or Richard Murphy or William Quandt or Gary Sick to offer an assessment of what is at stake for the US in this crisis. This is why the Obama administration is following the script of Israeli best wishes–which could prove soon to be disastrous for the US. I remember on Sep. 11, I kept thinking without any realization about James Forrestal. I kept thinking of his warnings back in 1948. So there is not a single expert around Obama who can dare to offer an evaluation of the situation from outside the Zionist framework. Not one. You can argue that the Zionist lobby’s biggest success since Reagan administration is to monopolize all appointments on the Middle East in the two main branches of government. But Israel’s best wishes could be horrific for the US.

And consider– the other night when Alan Dershowitz said on CNN that the United States is always on Israel’s side and other countries are unreliable and can turn Islamist, this rigid, foolish doctrine is actually policy.