Hopes for Peace

The president was right when he stated that if it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago. But given the fact that these negotiations involve existential issues for the State of Israel and deal with the deepest issues of identity for the Arab world, they have to be planned much more carefully.

Words like leadership and vision and progress are illusions without planning. When the issues involved go to the very existence of these two peoples, progress will come only from the most competent and careful analysis of what is possible and how to accomplish it. Hope is not enough. Hope, as Francis Bacon remarked, is a good breakfast but a poor supper.