After his speech to the nation last week, the president dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Middle East to attempt to revive, for the umpteenth time, the Israeli-Palestinian "peace" talks. The president's dispatch of Condi is meant to animate one of the ideas pushed by the Iraq Study Group, that peace, or even "peace," is necessary to dissolve the rampant anti-Americanism in the region. Only then is peace -- the real thing -- possible in Iraq. But real peace now between Israel and the Palestinians is probably fantasy, big-time. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority seem willing to talk, but neither has the clout to make it amount to much. Both are fighting for their survival.
Michael Oren, an Israeli historian, in his new book, "Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present," confronts the puzzle of success, failures and delusions of diplomacy there. America's mix of idealism and pragmatism, of striving to reconcile both strategic and ideological interests, has governed American policy for better and for worse (and more often than not, for worse). When idealism is a stronger motivation for policy than the power to sustain it, it's bound to fail.
Idealism and pragmatism were united when Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979. It was a stunning moment for a courageous Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to visit Israel, who was greeted by Menachem Begin, Israel's powerful newly elected prime minister, with warmth and gusto. That was the last negotiated success, limited though it was, between Israel and an Arab country, and it worked because both strong leaders had the strength and agility to fashion a workable compromise.
President Bush says Israeli-Palestinian peace is only part of his new strategy, with more troops in Iraq as more than half the gamble. This links idealism with the power to impose security, necessary for democracy to function. The surge doesn't guarantee success, but Sen. McCain put it plainly: "It will give us the best chance for success."