Like a ship navigating through a strait filled with mines, President Barack Obama succeeded in getting through this year's United Nations week gathering of heads of government in New York without damage to his re-election. But he also set up a potentially explosive confrontation during his second term over Iran's nuclear program.

What Egyptian women are showing us today is truly revolutionary because they are refusing to be sidelined in determining the future of their country. They were and are a part of Egypt's revolution.

A decade after 9/11, where have we been, where are we now, and where are we going?

Although President Barack Obama's 2009 Cairo address to the Islamic world was designed to invigorate U.S.-Arab relations, America's capricious policies in the face of pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East have betrayed his words.

When it came to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, President Obama curiously fell back on language about governments and treaties rather than individual freedom and human dignity.

On Thursday, Obama will "reset" American policy in the Middle East with a major address. But barring an almost inconceivable policy shift, all signs indicate that the Pentagon will quietly maintain antithetical policies.

Snorre Valen, the Norwegian Member of Parliament who nominated WikiLeaks, was probably on to something.

When U.S. politicians discuss critical Middle East matters, their remarks either display an ignorance of facts, are shaped more by political needs than reality, or are just plain dumb. Egypt provides a case in point.

Based on our polling done there last summer, we know that Egyptians are disappointed with Barack Obama and have a decidedly negative view of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

While it is still too early to call the protests in Egypt a revolution, Cairo has been under siege for 48 hours. The three-decade long rule of a despot -- and the country's role as an American ally -- is being challenged.

President Obama has provided more security assistance to Israel than any president in history; he's created an unprecedented level of military cooperation between the United States and Israel.

Schleifer: I am not giving up on Obama or on the direct negotiations he has tried to revive. Aslan: Is any other way to describe the present state of affairs other than utter failure?

2010 is far from over, yet we have witnessed a series of close encounters in the Middle East that created major tensions and pushed everyone to the edge.