Sometimes the best news - the really good stuff -doesn't happen.
There's word in The New York Times today that there's a good chance the United States, our country, will not be isolated should the Palestinians get recognized as a country. That's enormously good news. And it's not coming with a big headline.
Several weeks back, it looked like the United Nations was on the verge of recognizing the Palestinian state, with the United States the only country in the world voting against it. That would have made us look like we're all alone in our support for Israel, made Israel look like its only friend in the world was us.
That would be bad for us, bad for our friends in Israel. Well, it looks like it's not going to go this way. The membership committee of the UN Security Council had failed to reach a consensus. It looks like Germany is going to join us in voting against UN membership for the Palestinians, looks like Britain and France and also Colombia will abstain.
This news that we've avoided one bad situation comes as we see the good result that has come about in another area of U.S. diplomacy. That's Libya.
Gadhafi is gone, the NATO effort has succeeded. The United States has gotten its way without sending in American troops. Who was responsible for this good result? The same person we must credit with the good result regarding the Mideast, the Palestinian and Israeli issue. It was a good result because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was able to get Arab leaders behind the effort to topple Gadhafi, was able to avoid having the U.S. pay most of the cost and got NATO to take the lead.
This is a tricky time in world history. It's not just countries that we have to deal with, but also al-Qaeda. We have China and Brazil and India and Russia rising in power and not just economic power - also the diplomatic leverage that economic power brings with. Instead of acting alone like the world's big shot, we have to bring other countries in with us. That's if we want to get something done.
Hillary Clinton deserves the credit for doing just this. If there's a lot of buzz about her reentering politics someday it will be because she is doing a good job as Secretary of State - a job that's good for this country.
We're getting things done because of her.