The Media Bloodletting Part V

Add Richard Cohen to the growing list of disillusioned lefties. He minces no words in today’s New York Post column:

The arena of the administration’s incompetence is the issue of West Bank settlements.

[SNIP]

The Obama approach to the Israeli-Palestinian problem has been counterproductive. Either the Palestinians have to back down from their insistence that all settlements be frozen in place or Netanyahu has to back down from his pledge that any moratorium would be temporary. Either Abbas or Netanyahu has to lose credibility, and neither man can afford to.

Obama, too, has to husband his credibility. He foolishly demanded something Israel could not yet give. It was bad diplomacy.

What makes the Cohen piece so interesting is that it’s a complaint lodged against Obama’s foreign policy, where he’s largely gotten a pass from the left.