BUZZING – AT 7:03 P.M. ET:  Much buzz today about Hillary Clinton's remarkable blunder in her speech yesterday to AIPAC, the pro-Israel group.  You know, in diplomacy you've got to get the basics right.

Clinton, in an obvious and award attempt to appease the pro-Israel crowd, which is none too pleased with her recent confrontation with Israel, officially denounced the naming of a square in Ramallah after a Palestinian terrorist.  She blamed Hamas.

Trouble is, Hamas isn't in control of Ramallah, which is on the West Bank.  Hamas controls Gaza.  The Palestinian Authority controls Ramallah. 

The secretary has to go to a better bookstore and buy a book of maps.  It need not be expensive in these tough times.  Softcover versions are available.  Better prices can be had online through Amazon or Barnes and Noble. 

That kind of mistake, coming from someone who sometimes appears to know every neighborhood in Jerusalem, and even the street signs and graffiti, is inexcusable. 

There's a lot of amateurism in our foreign policy, a foreign policy that produces no results.  At first I tended to blame only Obama, but it's time Clinton took her lumps as well.

March 23, 2010