History Has Doomed Mideast Peace

THE DIFFICULT gets done immediately. The impossible — well, so far it has taken almost a century. How long before the Israelis and the Palestinians reach the true peace agreement that has eluded Jews and Arabs since the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after World War I? In separate meetings in the Oval Office recently, President Obama pressed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift from the “proximity” talks enabled by ever-shuttling US special envoy George Mitchell, with support from former British leader Tony Blair, to the direct negotiations which alone can lead toward resolution. Mitchell and Blair have made valiant efforts. But as great-power diplomats, they represent more than they know. The American and the Englishman, while putting themselves forward as the solution, embody the oldest problem.