Jerusalem welcomes the 44th President of the United States by trying to clear a mess off of his plate:

Israel hopes to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States on Tuesday, Israeli officials said.

Good good good that the war in Gaza is coming to a conclusion. Unmitigated good there. But isn’t it kind of tacky to peg the withdrawal to the newly sworn in president? Doesn’t that send the message that the Gaza war was little more than a chance to take advantage the blind eye of the Bush administration one final time? I suppose that as someone who argued for finding any pretext to end the war that I can’t complain, but this looks unseemly.

Crossposted to The Streak.