Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. What is known of the initial efforts of the Obama administration’s ideas about constructing a working diplomatic model for peace between Israel and the Palestinians — measures to build “trust and confidence” in pursuit of an undefined “broad vision of peace” — may well fit Einstein’s definition.
The judgment of history, as the saying goes, is merciless. From this cold-blooded perspective one can only marvel at the expenditure of American blood and treasure throughout the Middle East by successive US governments — Republican and Democrat alike — in past decades, particularly since the Clinton administration, for so little in return.
