Not only is Israel missing at this nuclear 'summit', so is Britain

President Obama is holding one of the biggest global summits ever on U.S. soil starting Monday, but for all the hoopla, the event will be missing America's strongest allies.

As remarkable as it is, the fact that neither British Prime Minister Gordon Brown nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are attending President Obama's nuclear security summit in Washington Monday and Tuesday is not altogether surprising.

Relations with both countries -- Israel in particular -- have grown strained under Obama. Combined with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent defiance of the administration, questions are growing about the president's ability to maintain important relationships.

"It is a curious state of affairs when relations with our major democratic allies are all wobbly at once," said Michael Green, a former foreign policy adviser to President George W. Bush, who also listed Japan and South Korea as traditional allies whose relationships with the U.S. have frayed under Obama.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not attending the summit to campaign ahead of May 6 elections, though there has been speculation that Brown chose not to attend simply to spite Obama.

Even major European leaders got meetings with Obama this week only at the last minute. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s one-on-one meeting with Obama was scheduled for Tuesday late on Sunday, only after meetings with the leaders of India, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Pakistan, Nigeria, China, Jordan, Malaysia, Ukraine, Armenia and Turkey.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/12/absence-of-key-u-s-allies-at-summit-amplifies-doubts-about-obamas-foreign-policy/2/#ixzz0kuoWzd16

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/12/absence-of-key-u-s-allies-at-summit-amplifies-doubts-about-obamas-foreign-policy/#ixzz0ktOjzc6H