2. Though shalt not freeze.
Obama's first-administration insistence on a one-year freeze of West Bank building was a rookie mistake that yielded no results -- other than alienating many Israelis. For while all men are created equal, all settlements are not. Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin -- a former army attaché to Washington who now directs Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies -- told reporters last month that a solid majority of Israelis would sign on for a freeze in roughly 80 percent of the West Bank, particularly the isolated ones east of the security fence. But halting building in the large settlement blocs, and in most Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem -- areas the Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians know will remain in Israel even after a peace deal -- is pointless, and only creates bilateral bad blood.
DAVID BUIMOVITCH/AFP/Getty Images
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