Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
Tom Ricks' Best Defense blog entry of March 19 has an entry that details exactly how we (by we I mean the Americans) should handle this...
What it says basically is we shouldn't bother with it anymore...
I hate to give Tom Ricks credit for anything, but if that is his position then good for him. I hear lots of people say that Israel is a strategic partner in the Mideast, but I've never heard an explanation of why, other than something that they did during the Cold War. I root for them, but I can't see what the benefit is in staying involved with their disputes. By simply being involved, we are blamed for everything. Our involvement accomplishes nothing, costs lots of money, undermines any hope of public diplomacy in the region, and makes it more difficult for Arab leaders to deal with us on mutually beneficial initiatives. The obsession that the Palestinians have with a piece of land strikes me as beyond asinine and the manner in which they are exploited by their fellow Arabs and mistreated by the Israelis is disgraceful. The way in which they go about airing their grievances and "resisting" is doubly asinine. There is no good solution to this other than to step back and let the pieces fall where they may. If we have any role in the matter, it should simply be helping to contain any conflict that arises (meaning keeping Iran from lobbing nukes, warning Israel not to, discouraging other states from contributing military aid, etc). We've got a better shot at turning Kandahar into San Francisco than bringing peace to Jerusalem.