George W. Bush’s new administration has been dealt a difficult hand in the Middle East. With fighting in the West Bank and Gaza, volatile oil prices, airline hijackings, terrorist threats and attacks, and provocative Iraqi troop movements, the president can be excused if he believes that he will not find his political fortune in that troubled region. If the elder President Bush’s efforts in building the Gulf War coalition in 1990 and President Clinton’s in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have come to naught, why should U.S. leaders waste any more time in this endlessly frustrating area?

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