EEEEK! EEEEK! DHIMMI! DHIMMI!

Yes, President Obama gave an interview to Al-Arabiya. Quinn Hillyer of The American Spectator writes:

This... Blows....My...Mind

... If I'm an Israeli, I would run, not walk, early and often, to vote for Binyamn Netanyahu for president there, because there ain't no way that Obama is gonna support Israel when push comes to shove....

I just want to point out that George W. Bush gave interviews to Al-Arabiya in May 2004, January 2005, October 2005, October 2007, January 2008, and May 2008 -- six interviews, which, as far as I can tell, is six more than Bush gave as president to MSNBC.

Bush was also interviewed on Al-Hurra in May 2004 (the media blitz at that moment was Abu Ghraib damage control) and January 2008. And, of course, Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld were interviewed on (gasp!) Al-Jazeera in October 2001.

****

UPDATE: I was wondering about Bush's "first formal interview" as president, and I found this, from Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post on 2/16/01:

...on Feb. 5, ... President Bush granted his first formal interview not to the New York Times or USA Today but to journalists from the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Albuquerque Journal, Portland Oregonian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Portland, Maine, Press Herald, Dallas Morning News and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Administration insiders note that all but the Texas paper are in states that Bush either narrowly won or lost in November, and could well need in 2004.

There you go: Obama's first formal interview was part of an effort to restore America's international standing and reduce tensions in critically important regions of the world. Bush's first formal interview was -- by his subordinates' own admission -- part of an effort to get reelected.