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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/18/AR2007031801056.html
The Great Mideast Pretenders
[Washington Post] Jackson Diehl - For years cynical statesmen have played a game of make-believe with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: From podiums in Europe or at the UN, they announce that their top priority henceforth will be promoting a "comprehensive settlement," brokered by the "international community." That Israelis and Palestinians may be nowhere near ready for such a deal doesn't concern them. Since the beginning of the year, Secretary of State Rice has been proclaiming her commitment to promoting an Israeli-Palestinian "political horizon," which is her newly coined synonym for a comprehensive settlement. She's promised to haunt Jerusalem and Ramallah this year; she will be there again this week, in a dramatic reversal of the Bush administration's previous hands-off policy. It's hard to resist the notion that her diplomacy is mainly aimed at an audience of one: Saudi King Abdullah. Rice has been leaning heavily on Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Abdullah's national security chief and an intimate of the Bush family, to organize Arab resistance against Iran. Talking up the Saudi initiative pleases the king, whom Rice needs to keep happy.