Middle East Expertise at the US government

I would argue (at least from reading through the archives in the US) that the quality of Middle East expertise at the US government (politics aside) has so deteriorated over the years. I mark it with the Clinton administration: it was a gradual process probably started in the Reagan administration and accelerated under Clinton. The appointment of Martin Indyk was the watershed, in my judgment, because it represented the official marginalization and denigration of the Arabists. The Bush administration took it a step further with the appointment of Elliott Abrams in charge of Middle East policy. Things have not changed under Obama: the Shapiro-Feltman team is a mere echo of the Israeli lobby in the capital. Neither of the two is a real Middle East expert in the tradition of William Quandt, Richard Murphy, and Richard Parker and people like that. Shapiro at the Obama White House has no Middle East expertise and his only Middle East experience is in lobbying in the US congress against Al-Manar TV in the US. Lobbying for Israeli propaganda interests is considered Middle East education and experience in the US.