More O'Hanlon

Here, I suppose, is the sort of disaster O'Hanlon sees in Obama's future:

[W]hen the Clinton administration treated Yasser Arafat as a full-fledged negotiating partner in a peace process leading up to the Wye Plantation talks in 2000, we were ultimately left at the altar. Not only did Bill Clinton give the Palestinian leader the honor of personal meetings, he rolled up his sleeves and invested countless hours in the common pursuit of a deal both Arafat and the Israelis could support. By almost all accounts, the resulting framework was fair and serious, and accompanied by all the pomp and prestige of the American president's constant engagement. Arafat refused it anyway.

Those talks--and the honor they bestowed--did wonders for Arafat, didn't they? One can, and O'Hanlon clearly does, look at the 2000 efforts and conclude that by failing to accomplish much in the immediate, the whole exercise was a useless, possibly even harmful, undertaking. But one can also study at those efforts for lessons to bring to future talks, which might yield better results. Clinton's efforts, after all, came within several square miles of making history, and in their aftermath came a softening (of sorts) among Israeli Likudniks on the issue of Israeli conduct in the territories. But I suppose Obama should just ignore all that and continue the proud Bush tradition of pretending Palestinian leaders don't exist.