over the past few weeks drama has revolved not around the forest the willingness of israelis or palestinians to agree on refugees security presence borders jerusalem but on the trees are we keeping score or promoting mideast peace although unlikely to replace russia as europes top natural gas provider qatar could assist in significantly decreasing the eus reliance on russian energy resources while at the same time obtaining greater diplomatic leverage over european governments as europe reconsiders russian gas qatar waits in wings while the shouting but notably not shooting continues in the ukraine crisis and the middle east peace process collapses president barack obama is in the middle of his fournation asiapacific tour hows it going amidst very predictable distractions from russia and israel fair to middling asiapacific pivot obama trip so far as important for what hasnt happened as for what has happened