Obama's Middle East Goal: Tie US Policy Closer to American Values

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Obama's insistence that US policy in the Middle East support, rather than thwart, popular yearnings for self-rule is a warning to autocrats in the region - and marks an 'update' since his Cairo speech.

Five months into the Arab Spring, President Obama is honing his Middle East strategy with an update to the "new beginning" he proposed for US-Arab relations nearly two years ago in Cairo.

Among the points the president is underscoring: Patience with tyrants is running short - even in cases, like Syria, where fear of an unknown alternative has moderated diplomatic pressures. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not isolated from the changes sweeping the region but …