gandalf: Let me get a bit rabbinical here, and answer a question with a question. What about the Oslo ’93 peace accords. For all intents and purposes, President Clinton brokers a sweeping and comprehensive set of accords. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians agree to terms and it looks as though the Palestinians will have a state of their own.

So what happened? I bring this up because the Oslo accords would seem to fit the bill in terms of your questions regarding attempting to broker a peace in hopes of engaging the moderate elements of the surrounding countries, most specifically Iran and the Iranian people.

I am all for attempting to find a working solution to the Palestinian problem, but it appears that history and past experience militate strongly against the possibility.

Why wouldn’t Arafat have jumped at the opportunity to make the Palestinian state a reality? Why did he behave the way he did? Is there any possibility it was more beneficial to him to keep the Palestinians disenfranchised and angry, therefore more malleable when it came to waging war against the Israelis?