Peace in the Middle East

Former President Jimmy Carter has written a new book... 'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid'

It is sure to be controversial.

Considering that our national dialogue for the past 5 years has been very much Middle East-centric, it is amazing how little spotlight this situation gets in the grand scheme of things (understandably, being bogged down in a quagmire elsewhere does tend to distract us). After all, this conflict really is the underlying issue that fuels much of the discontent in that region. Whatever your opinion on this conflict, there is no denying that (unlike what President Bush tries to paint Iraq as), this is the 'central front' in a war on terrorism. It is a front that we cannot fight, but one which our place in the world makes us responsible for helping to solve.

Besides our inability to work miracles, one large problem has been that our leaders and media figures have been too busy over the years picking sides (and it's entirely lop-sided as to which side on top of that) to actually sit down and approach this situation honestly. The only one who seemed to me to achieve a decent balance was Bill Clinton, but he never really committed to the issue (distracted by domestic scandals, both real and fake). It all becomes just another topic to debate, rather than a key international crisis in need of solving.

I don't know what it would take it to change that, other than the right President. That person has yet to submit their application.