The Annapolis meeting - Lessons to be learned from history

Jeff Robbins was a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission during the Clinton administration. He, therefore, brings some experience to the table when he writes about American intervention in foreign affairs.

He writes in today's Opinion Journal on wsj.com,

It is increasingly de rigueur around the world and, for that matter, in certain segments of the Democratic Party, to place responsibility for all international crises on the U.S. government. Unsurprisingly, therefore, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, it has attained the level of high fashion to ascribe the persistent absence of peace to a lack of adequate U.S. "engagement" in resolving it.

Mr. Robbins is on to something. A review of the New York Times archives in 1967 shows a willingness to misread the Arab-side of the Mid East conflict and to find hope where none existed. Failure at Annapolis will be placed at the feet of the US. Those who fail to understand Arab-Israeli history from 1948 to the present time and recognizing the truth in it, do a disservice to their country.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010889