Reality Begins to Sink In

The Middle East is a tragic place that relentlessly grinds down optimists, naifs, and solutionists. I doubt it will be like this forever, but it is not going to stop this year or next. Now that the Obama Administration has been engaged with it for almost two years, officials are beginning to show a bit of progress on the learning curve.

“The status quo is unsustainable,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said shortly before meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres, but “that doesn’t mean it can’t be sustained for a year, or a decade, or two or three.”