Just to put my recent criticisms of Obama’s foreign policy in context, it’s worth recalling that a different result in the US election would have brought Sarah Palin within a heartbeat of the presidency. Here she is, expounding on the Israel-Palestine question:

I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead and I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.