Obama sends Clinton to Mideast to help defuse Israel-Gaza conflict President Obama dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Mideast on Tuesday stepping up his administration's so-far futile attempts to broker an end to the bloody conflict in the Gaza Strip. Clinton flew to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving abruptly from Cambodia where she had accompanied Obama to a regional summit. From Israel, the secretary is slated to travel to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian officials before heading to Cairo to talk with Egyptian leaders. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Clinton's task was the "deesclation of violence" in the Gaza Strip and her hastily arranged trip was deemed by the president to be the best way to push forward toward that goal. After days of working the phones while traveling in Southeast Asia, Obama determined it was time for "face-to-face discussions," Rhodes said. "The center of gravity is in the region," he said. Israeli and Arab negotiators have been meeting in Cairo trying in vain to hammer out a cease fire that would halt the rocket attacks from Hamas militants and the Israeli air strikes that have pounded Gaza for nearly a week, killing at least 100 people. Rhodes repeated the White House's support for Israel in the conflict, saying Israel has a right to defense itself. Rhodes did not name the leaders, other than Netanhayu, on Clinton's itinerary. The White House does not engage directly with Hamas because "it has not met the conditions set for many years, to renounce terrorism, to recognize Israel's right to exist and to abide by existing agreements."