Being president is all about sending messages. When it comes to the Middle East, everybody knows that indirect messages can carry at least much weight as the direct ones.

So it’s not surprising a whole lot of people are trying to figure out just what President Obama meant by selecting  Mary Robinson, the former  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as one of 16 recipients of the Medal of Freedom. And others think they know and are trying to spin the rest of us.

For many pro-Israel activists, the selection was loaded down with unwelcome significance.

It’s not just that Robinson is seen as biased against Israel; what has made her name a lightning rod is her personal identification with a 2001 UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa that was hijacked and turned into a grotesque festival of overt anti-Semitism, right down to the distribution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Robinson didn’t support the anti-Semitic outbursts at Durban, but a credible case can be made that she didn’t do enough to prevent them – or speak up loudly enough after the debacle.

She has spoken out extensively against anti-Semitism, but was also part of a UN human rights hierarchy that demonized, and didn’t just criticize, Israel.

So was there a message implicit in her selection, or was it just a misstep by administration officials who thought nobody would care too much about honoring Robinson among 15 other recipients, including the actress Chita Rivera and tennis player Billie Jean King?

The dumb move theory isn’t exactly a slam dunk.

This administration has had plenty of time to learn the ins and outs of vetting, and top officials at the White House have accumulated lots of experience in dealing with the special sensitivities of the Jewish community. It’s hard to swallow the idea that they didn’t expect Jewish groups to react negatively (on Monday, the ADL did; here’s a link to their press release).

But if it was a message, what was its meaning?

Some argue that her selection  was meant as one more signal to the Arab and Muslim world that Washington and Jerusalem don’t walk in lockstep, another follow up to Obama’s outreach speech in Cairo.

But I’m guessing not. This is a part of the world  where messages are usually delivered with a blow torch; while Robinson’s name conjures up memories of skewed U.N. policies and the Durban to many Jews,  most of the rest of the world  remembers her primarily for her  human rights work in other areas  and her groundbreaking political career in Ireland.

In other words: selecting Mary Robinson for a presidential medal isn’t going to convince many in the Arab world that Obama is their new best friend.

Some partisan Republicans are calling reporters and arguing that her selection was meant as this administration’s equivalent of a former Republican secretary of state’s “bleep the Jews” comment.

Sorry, no sale; in other areas the administration is showing they care a lot about the views of American  and Israeli Jews. That’s why they’re mounting a major PR offensive to explain policies they believe have been misunderstood.

I can’t imagine anybody over on Pennsylvania Ave. believes giving Robinson the nation’s highest civilian honor will contribute to those goals.

And another honoree is the late Jack Kemp – the former pro football quarterback, congressman, HUD secretary, Republican vice presidential candidate – and pro-Israel hardliner. It would be hard to find a politician more revered by the very same pro-Israel leaders who are the most upset about Robinson.

So if there was a message here, it was a pretty garbled one.

If you’re  following my logic, you’ve probably guessed by now that I don’t have an answer. My hunch is that the people making the decision concluded it wouldn’t be a big deal, and that the only Jews who’d be bent out of shape are those who already think Obama has it in for Israel.

But I also know that among a pro-Israel leadership that has become steadily more uncomfortable with Obama administration positions on Israel and anxious about what comes next, the decision to honor Robinson will inevitably make things worse.