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This week’s deadly Israeli attack on an activist flotilla in the Mediterranean seems to have left the White House adrift.

World leaders were
quick to condemn the Israeli sea assault Monday that took the lives of
nine people on an aid flotilla to Gaza. President Barack Obama wasn’t
one of them. He spoke with the prime ministers of Israel and Turkey,
but said nothing beyond those private conversations. Officially his
administration urged Israel to release the hundreds of activists it
captured and investigate the incident, but Washington didn’t criticize
anyone.

“Turkey and Israel
are both good friends to us,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
“and we are working with both to deal with the aftermath with this
tragic incident.”

Some Republicans
were quicker to choose sides. “The Israelis have been very clear about
sustaining a blockade of Gaza, and they have every right to sustain a
blockade of Gaza,” Newt Gingrich, a senior figure in the Republican
Party, told Politico.Com. “Hamas is actively every day trying to kill
Israelis, and as a matter of international law, Turkey should not have
allowed that flotilla to go down there.”

Last month’s BP
oil-well disaster hasn’t been fixed and oil continues to soil the
southern U.S. coast. Both it and the Israeli attack have one thing in
common: they’ve forced the Obama administration to navigate its way
through someone else’s mishap.

Many Americans have
complained that the president seemed too passive in the days after the
oil disaster, leaving BP to address the emergency. Some people outside
the U.S. complained that the administration has been nearly absent from
the debate over Israel’s attack, leaving others to manage that crisis
too.

“I have to be frank: I am not very happy,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. “We expect a clear condemnation.”

The United States
wants to encourage oil companies to supply it with ample, inexpensive
energy and, at the same time, it wants to safeguard the environment.
The United States wants to be Israel’s protector and, at the same time,
it wants to calm tensions and improve its standing in the Muslim world.

It can be difficult to head in such different directions. After the
two mishaps at sea, the White House has appeared to its critics and
even some of its friends, to be just treading water.