Obama in Cairo

There's not a lot more to add to the deluge of commentary on President Obama's speech today. I thought it was a good speech, given the ambition and scope. Still this nugget caught my attention:

For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers – for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.

That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires.

It's difficult to see how the two state solution is a core American interest - on par with the need for strategic resources or the defense of our own population. We've lived lo these many decades without two states. I suspect we'd be just fine with the status quo a while longer. The central problem for the U.S. is not the lack of a resolution (although that matters), but the lack of a resolution despite our continued involvement in the conflict.

At a certain point, one would think that continued failure would force a more broad-ranging appraisal of whether it is in our interest to try to make the two parties come to terms. After all, six decades is a long time to try and fail at something. But, for a multitude of reasons, we seem to want to keep going back to the well.