A diplomatic official argued that, because of the chaos in the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli demands [for cessation of violence] are no longer relevant, since it is clear that there is no Palestinian leader who can deliver on the issue of fighting terror.

If there is nobody who can make order in the entire country, it is obviously the ideal circumstance for declaring a state, isn't it? I mean, what could be better? "State of Anarchy." Don't knock it. Look at how well it is working in Iraq.

Even better is the logic of Forward itself, or of the State Department, which blames Israel for failure to implement the roadmap:

"Though the United States has maintained that the road map is still the only viable peace plan for the region, it never took off. This was mainly because of the Israeli insistence that the Palestinians curb terrorism as demanded in the first phase of the plan."

It is clear. There is a plan, the roadmap, issued by the Quartet. This plan states that Palestinian terror attacks must stop before there can be a Palestinian state. The Israelis insist that terrorism must stop according to the plan. Therefore the plan "never took off because of Israeli insistence" - not because the terrorism didn't stop, but because the Israelis insisted on following the plan!

It makes sense to the State Department, and apparently to the Forward. If it doesn't make sense to us, it is obviously due to some deficiency of our feeble intellects. If this clear and logical scheme fails, it will, obviously, be due to the machinations of the nefarious Israel Lobby.

Ami Isseroff