But let’s be honest — at the rate we’re going, the Earth will have fallen in to the sun by the time they come to a working, final agreement.

It seems to me that the problem is the insistence — all around — on KOing the whole thing in one wallop. Gathering representatives of every inclined party in Annapolis (or anywhere else) won’t accomplish anything towards solving something as contentious, long-standing, and deeply-ingrained as this.

Consider the most successful Israeli-Arab treaty, that with Egypt in 1979. It’s still in force — even though Tel Aviv and Cairo have had some terse moments/months/years, faced massive domestic resistance, and had a rock-solid mutual distrust, they never broke. The treaty’s genius was a very limited scope — they didn’t attempt to solve every single issue, going so far as to deliberately avoid a number of rocky areas… and thus, they didn’t end up derailing a sorely-needed agreement over a peripheral quarrel.

Now we’re trying to come up with an omnidimensional, all-encompassing document that will make everyone happy. There are so many minute details, and so many viewpoints, that even a good-faith effort by all sides — something I’m sure will be lacking — would require years.

To say that the Bush administration can’t do this in 14 months is true, but an understatement — the next administration could devote 8 solid years, and still come up empty-handed. I haven’t lost all hope that progress will be made, but I don’t expect to be planning a Gaza vacation in my lifetime.