This is an administration obsessed with winning hearts and minds. The State Department has gone so far as to appoint a super-special "representative to Muslim communities," a woman who can devote her full time to the global apology tours that Bush's public diplomacy envoy Karen Hughes used to embark on. Obama has spoken to the entire Muslim world, sought to curry favor with the African continent wholesale, and assured the Europeans that - though he doesn't speak their languages - he's at least embarrassed about that. In every corner of the globe The One has personally offered his Hope and Change Gospel to all people of all creeds.

Except to Israelis:

Obama did not try to communicate with the Israeli public and convince them that freezing settlements will be an important and positive step to contribute to peace and a better future. Obama addressed the Arabs and Muslims, but not the Israelis. His neglect increased concerns among Israelis that they do not have a friend in the White House. When the president is "Hussein," he is perceived as being pro-Arab and picking on Netanyahu. The administration's pathetic attempt to deny the existence of understandings with Israel on construction in the settlements only bolstered this impression. It was possible to blame Israel for violating its promises, or to say that the policy had changed and to explain why, but not to lie.

Obama's concern for public diplomacy - such an important emphasis when he justifies sucking up to anti-woman, anti-gay, undemocratic, illiberal terrorist states - somehow evaporates when he's dealing with Israel:

With all of Obama's goodwill and all-embracing ambition, there is something naive, not to say infuriating, about his policy of rapprochement and about the whistle stops he has chosen on his travels dealing with our issue. He spoke in Turkey, he spoke in Egypt, he appeared before students in Saudi Arabia, in Paris, in England, in Ghana and in Australia. Even there the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was mentioned. His plan to begin rapprochement with Iran, which openly threatens to destroy Israel, and to reassure its fanatic leadership, which cruelly suppresses any attempt by the younger generation to get rid of the regime of the ayatollahs, is delusional. The only place where he hasn't been is as president Israel. He has spoken about us, but not to us.

That's from Yoel Marcus, an unrepentant Israeli leftist with no love for settlements or for the Israeli right. That's why even public diplomacy experts like Marc Lynch - a guy who recently blasted Biden for suggesting that Israel had the right to defend itself against Iran - are sounding the alarm about Obama's lack of outreach: