
 The  Anti-Defamation League has termed United States President Barack Obama's Middle  East policy “faulty” and “deeply distressing” in a recent statement. Obama is  wrongly shifting responsibility from the Arab world to Israel, said director  Abraham Foxman.
"The significant shift in U.S. policy toward Israel and  the peace process, which has been evident in comments from various members of  the Obama administration and has now been confirmed by the president himself in  his press conference at the Nuclear Security Summit, is deeply distressing,”  Foxman wrote. 
At his press conference, Obama said, “I think that the  need for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and the Arab states remains as  critical as ever,” later adding, “It is a vital national security interest of  the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not,  we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way  or another we get pulled into them.  And that ends up costing us significantly  in terms of both blood and treasure.”
His statements followed rumors that  US General David Petraeus had blamed Israel for US military deaths. Petraeus  later denied those rumors, but they continue to be quoted.  
“Saying that the absence of a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian  conflict undermines U.S. interests in the broader Middle East and the larger  issue of resolving other conflicts is a faulty strategy,” the ADL statement  said. “It is an incorrect approach on which to base America's foreign policy in  the Middle East and its relationship with its longtime friend and ally,  Israel."
"ADL has long expressed its concern from the very beginning of  the Obama administration about advisers to the president who see the ongoing  Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a major impediment to achieving the  administration's foreign policy and military goals in the wider region. The net  effect of this dangerous thinking is to shift responsibility for success of  American foreign policy away from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and  Egypt and directly onto Israel. It is particularly disturbing in light of the  blatantly disproportionate number and the nature of statements issued by this  administration criticizing Israel as compared to what has been said about the  Palestinians.”
In order to achieve peace, the Obama administration  must force Arab nations to take responsibility, the statement continued. "The  best way to move the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians forward  is for all parties to demand that the Palestinians abandon their tactic of 'just  saying no' and insist that the rest of the Arab world move toward normalization  of relations with Israel.”