People who plan to change the future often take a practice run at the past. In 2008 Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of change. As it turned out, “change” for the charismatic  candidate didn’t only mean altering what was to happen, but also what happened before.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal this week, Elliott Abrams, formerly in charge of Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, provides an illustration. On June 17,

President Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, stated that there were no agreements between the U.S. and Israel concerning Israeli settlements in the disputed territories.

“[I]n looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral...