From Michael J. Totten:The Middle East is a hard place for idealists, especially for the Western liberal variety. My feelings of optimism for the region have been ground down over time like rocks under slow-moving glacial ice.
Last time I visited Israel, at the end of the Gaza war this past January, I met Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. He sounded no less despondent than the Israelis I spoke to. “Listen,” he said. “We must stop dreaming about the New Middle East and coexistence and harmony and turning this area into Hong Kong and Singapore...I don't see a real peace emerging over here. We should stop talking about it.”
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My Comment: Michael J. Totten's work is always a must read .... in particular this one. His interview with Jeffrey Goldberg (whose works are at The Atlantic) is particularly revealing on the wide gulf that exists between the different ethnic and religious communities in the Middle East. Sad and depressing .... but that has always been the history of the Middle East.
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