Why so many US presidents have failed to bring Middle East peace

Attempts by a long line of American presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, to broker an accord between Israelis and Palestinians or promote initiatives to end the conflict have hinged more on timing than anything else.
Former United States Secretaries of State George Shultz (L) and Madeleine Albright testify at the Senate Armed Services Committee on global challenges and U.S. national security strategy on Capitol Hill in Washington January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4NHNC
Former US Secretaries of State George Shultz (L) and Madeleine Albright testify at the Senate Armed Services Committee on global challenges and US national security strategy on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 29, 2015. - REUTERS/Gary Cameron
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Akiva Eldar
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In the US Republican primaries, nothing exemplifies the nature of the Israeli connection to American political discourse better than Sen. Marco Rubio's tempest-in-a-teapot over leading Republican candidate Donald Trump saying that he intends to try to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And if that weren’t enough, in the Feb. 18 debate, Trump dared to say that it's not efficacious for a mediator in negotiations to declare unswerving support for one of the sides.

This sentence made Trump an unfair mediator in Rubio’s eyes, and he swore not to be neutral, saying, “I will be on Israel’s side every single day, because they are the only pro-American, free enterprise democracy in the entire Middle East.”

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