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Leading up to the famous handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in 1993, President Bill Clinton's speechwriters called the renowned scholar of Islam, Bernard Lewis, to ask for a quote from the Quran appropriate for a peace conference.

Lewis responded with a quote from memory. "Not that one," the speechwriters responded. "We've already used that one. We need another one."

Lewis responded: "I don't think there is another one."

Michael Ledeen, the prolific writer and researcher of fascism and Middle East affairs, retells this story in one of the first "Encounter Broadsides," published by Encounter Books, in November. The Broadsides are essentially pamphlets, modeled on 18th century publications, which contain a full political argument meant to be read in one sitting. Ledeen's is the second of four currently in print.

Ledeen's Broadside is an exploration of President Barack Obama's Mideast policy, with special focus on Israel and the origins of the Palestinian nationalist movement. Called "Obama's Betrayal of Israel," the Broadside is highly critical of the president, though often from the perspective of Obama's naivete about Islamist Arab culture rather than knowing hostility toward Israel.

The story retold above is used as an example of such -- not Obama's naiflike approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict of course, but of a traditional misstep that the president repeats. The Broadside is also a word of advice: don't assign good intentions to those who haven't shown them.

"Obama's Cairo speech was also full of misstatements about the history of the Muslim world, all designed to demonstrate that Islam made many important contributions to Western civilization," Ledeen writes. "There are such contributions, but many of the examples the president used were, at best, misleading, above all his contention that 'Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.' In fact, there is not a single instance in the long history of Islam in which Jews have been 'tolerated' (at least as we use the word today) by a Muslim ruler or government."

"In every case," Ledeen points out, "the Jews have been stigmatized as formally inferior, forced to identify themselves as such (sometimes having to wear certain clothing or symbols), and compelled to pay onerous financial tribute to their rulers."

Those are the best-case scenarios, of course. In recent memory, the Jews were simply murdered or banished after having their property confiscated. This "Muslim world" is the negotiating partner for Israel, and those who wish to partake in Mideast peacemaking must know the history and the stakes involved. Ledeen makes both clear here.

Ledeen also reminds the reader that the language used by the current administration toward Israel's Arab and Islamist enemies is similar to the language American administrations used to describe the Vietnamese enemies of the 1960s and '70s. The Arabs return the favor by using political and military tactics against Israel that were used by the North Vietnamese.

This is by design. In 1970, the PLO was failing to earn wide popular support. Arafat needed an image makeover, and looked to the North Vietnamese.

"The Vietnamese strategists (notably General Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh himself) advised the Palestinians to begin to present themselves as a 'national liberation movement' and to combine their terrorist attacks with a two-pronged political campaign," Ledeen writes. "In this campaign, they would tone down their uncompromising demand for the destruction of Israel and instead work to achieve this ultimate goal in stages, agreeing to compromise at each stage."

Arafat would pretend to "moderation," while not actually moderating (a model the Palestinian Authority follows today). Here's how: "The new face crafted under Hanoi's tutorial simply allowed the terrorists to create a phony distinction between a 'moderate' PLO and a 'terrorist' group under Abu Nidal, the terrorist gang Arafat pretended to combat but actually created and controlled."

The Palestinians and the Iranians are both enemies of Israel and the United States. They make their intentions clear: the destruction of both "Satans" and the repression of freedom and human rights. Why doesn't Obama treat them that way?

Here Ledeen hits the nail on the head: "It is difficult for Obama to accept these harsh facts because he is intellectually and emotionally committed to a very different view of the world," he writes. "Arguments alone are unlikely to change his mind; as a result, facts on the ground may provide his education."

Almost everyone agrees that Obama is "smart." But there are two kinds of "smart": the first is the ability to quickly process complex information; the second is the actual possession of lots of information.

Obama seems to have loads of the former, but having come from an elite university background and having spent almost no time in the Senate before running for president, Obama has very little of the knowledge that comes from experience. He has theories -- well-processed theories, surely. But they are theories nonetheless.

The Middle East is rude and impatient with theories. Yet, what we have here is something of a theoretical presidency -- a manifestation of speculation.

Theories aren't useless, but Ledeen has presented us with a readable backgrounder full of facts, past and present. Though he is the intellectual target of this Broadside, Obama would gain much from reading it, and so would many in the American public.

Seth Mandel is the managing editor of The Jewish State.