"Peace" Not Now

"It's time to park the peace process," writes Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times. I might have phrased it somewhat differently--i.e. it's time to stick the "peace process" where the sun don't glow--but I concur with his assessment:

Some European diplomats cling to the idea that the Palestinian issue remains at the heart of the instability in the Middle East. But that is a theological position that can only be upheld by resolutely ignoring actual events. If there is one thing that the uprisings across the Middle East have in common, it is that they have very little to do with the Palestinians. What is more, despite the eager predictions of many outside analysts, the occupied Palestinians territories have not (so far) exploded into Egyptian-style insurrection.

The main bearing that the Arab spring has had on the Palestinian issue is to change the calculations of both sides to the conflict, in ways that make them even less likely to risk negotiating a peace settlement... 

A heads-up for the quixotic "Quartet": the Palestine stuff is all about wanting to replace a Jewish Israel with an Arab/Muslim Palestine. It has nada to do with "peace" in the kafir sense of the word.