From The Washington Post: The Palestinian Authority’s latest charade

...this mess was entirely foreseeable and inevitable once Obama began parroting the Palestinian Authority’s line that it was ready for peace, that Israel had to be bullied and that Israeli building stood in the way. How could the Palestinian Authority be less intransigent than the president of the United States? How could Abbas stop inciting violence and distance himself from Hamas if the president kept saying that he was already a “partner for peace”?

Obama came into office with the misguided belief that the United States had been too close to Israel (which under President George W. Bush had withdrawn from Gaza, lifted checkpoints and agreed not to expand the footprint of settlements). Instead, Obama cozied up to the Palestinian Authority, encouraging its worst instincts and making bilateral negotiations more difficult...