Israel (and America) need better than Obama!

USNews&WR/ here

"..... If the Obama administration wants to leave any kind of decent mark in history for its handling of the Middle East—pretty poor so far—it should do something right now that would clear the air and save Mitchell the four months he's allocated. It's simple. Just invite the Palestinians to do what the Israelis have done for decades, which is to declare in the language of their own people that both sides have genuine claims to this land (not really!), that both sides have the right to live in peace, and that a viable compromise is possible....

The Israelis are clearly prepared to live with a Palestinian state along their borders. The trouble is precisely that the Palestinians are not..... Decades of terrorism have left Israelis demoralized about the potential of negotiations.....

What will make it difficult for the Israelis to be forthcoming in the brokered negotiations with the Palestinians is the widespread concern that this administration, unlike others going back to the Truman years, lacks a basic commitment to Israel, or sympathy for it.... the Israelis no longer believe that the American commitment to Israel is rock-solid. They have witnessed the erosion of U.S. support for Israel at the United Nations and more recently at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The United States has taken public positions on the settlement freeze and Jerusalem that enhanced the expectations of the Palestinians, who cannot be less pro-Palestinian than the White House and, therefore, cannot climb down from the positions taken by the U.S. administration.

... When the Israelis left Lebanon (UNDER DURESS!), Iran operated through its proxy, Hezbollah; when the Israelis left Gaza, Iran went in through Hamas, and all the U.N. and international guarantees failed to stop the attacks....Obama clearly wonders whether the current Israeli prime minister is serious about making peace......"