Our esteemed but ineffective Secretary of State, Ms. Rice, is currently traveling to the Middle East, presumably to re-start the always-stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks about peace and the establishment of a permanent, independent Palestinian state. The current U.S. administration has no credibility or moral authority left to deal with either the Palestinians or the much tougher Israelis. Thus nothing but empty gestures and words will come of this ‘effort’. Ms. Rice who I consider to be a abject failure in her job will return home to the U.S., and with much fanfare announce what does not deserve announcing. Both, the Israelis and Palestinians (but especially the Israeli Government) need to be taken to task if progress is to be achieved. Diplomacy is not the current U.S. administration’s forte so success is not an option for now.

See this insightful article by John V. Whitbeck as to why this problem needs a resolution and why such a resolution will not come easy. Mr. Whitbeck’s point is that a decent two-state solution is no longer possible. Israel has already build too many illegal settlements, build too many walls and checkpoints and illegally annexed too much land. He advocates a decent one-state solution in which Palestinian are fully integrated and given rights equal to their Jewish counterparts. Something worth considering but completely outside the competency boundaries of our current U.S. administration.