Carrot And Stick Time

Obama gave a carrot and stick approach to the Middle East today, with the UN authorizing more sanctions against Iran...

The new sanctions include cargo inspections, new controls on Iranian banks "to block the use of the international financial system ... to fund and facilitate nuclear proliferation," restrictions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a new U.N. panel of experts to help monitor and enforce sanctions, and asset freezes on 40 entities and an individual, Rice said.

The individual is Javad Rahiqi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, who will also be subject to a travel ban.

The sanctions do not include restrictions on gas imports to Iran, a possibility the United States had floated but which China and Russia opposed.

...and $400 million in aid to Gaza, taking direct aim at the Israeli blockade.

Calling the situation in the impoverished Gaza Strip "unsustainable," Obama urged Israel to meet the demands of the UN Security Council in the probe into the deadly incidence in which nine activists were killed by Israeli commandos.

Obama also said the United States was to unveil a 400-million-dollar civilian aid package for the Palestinians, with the money to be used for projects such as housing and schools.

It's the kind of thing countries playing the game at this level do, Obama gets sanctions on Iran in exchange for Israel backing off on Gaza.  That's the way diplomacy works:  carrot and stick.

And yet Israel will want all carrot.  The Israeli response will be very important, but there's not much they can do to complain if the United States pledges to give aid to Gaza based on Israel's rules.

Imagine that.  A US President using diplomacy.