You may not have heard this, and you probably don't care, but the time for the lame-duck US administration to hold an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference is once again fast approaching. But this time around, I am cautiously optimistic because, so far at least, no one seems to have noticed. The plan this time around is for talks to begin in Maryland this Tuesday. The news media in the United States is paying little attention. The Iowa caucuses are in little over a month. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, several other crises have been distracting the reactionaries on both sides. The saber-rattling going on between Tehran and Washington comes to mind. While the world’s attention is turned towards Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria are quietly contemplating participating in the talks. But most importantly, no one has any expectations of success. The few reports on the talks focus on their likelihood of failure There is absolutely no way that anyone could be disappointed with the outcome, so there is no pressure to stage a dramatic break-off, as happened in 2000. The situation in the region seems so dismal at the moment, that the idea of progress seems laughable. Of course things could change. A slow news day leading up to the conference could tank everything. Personally, I’m hoping for Ahmadinejad to throw another fireball sometime this weekend. At any rate the bottom line is this: keep a cautiously optimistic eye towards Annapolis this week.
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