U.S. Struggles In Middle East, With Fewer Allies And Less Influence
WASHINGTON Fri Aug 1, 2014 8:23pm EDT
(Reuters) - The U.S failure to secure a firm ceasefire in the Gaza Strip despite two weeks of intense diplomacy reflects new regional dynamics in which the world's most powerful actor has diminished influence and fewer allies.
When Secretary of State John Kerry left Washington on July 21 on a mission to try to halt the latest Israeli-Palestinian war, more than 400 Palestinians had been killed, mostly civilians, along with 20 Israelis, 18 of them soldiers.
Nearly two weeks later, after Kerry's extensive face-to-face diplomacy in Cairo, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Tel Aviv and Paris and scores of telephone calls, the death tolls have tripled, two ceasefires have collapsed and the violence rages.
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DIMINISHED INFLUENCE
"There is no question that U.S. influence has diminished" in the Arab world, said Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt now at Princeton University.
U.S. credibility has also been undercut by its reluctance to intervene in Syria's civil war; Kerry's failed push for wider Israeli-Palestinian peace, which collapsed in April; and Iraq's instability despite a decade of massive U.S. intervention.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/02/us-mideast-gaza-usa-idUSKBN0G200J20140802