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Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-satloff18may18,1,7279431.story
Don't Treat the "Road Map" as Gospel
(Los Angeles Times) - Robert Satloff Designed by diplomats from the UN, the EU, Russia, and the U.S., the road map suffers the common ills of committee-drafted work. It is long on text but short on detail; it claims to be performance-based but it is actually timeline-driven. Having been presented to Israel and the Palestinians as a fait accompli, the road map has the dubious distinction of being the first U.S.-endorsed peace plan in decades that the local parties did not themselves negotiate. At best, it is a tool to jump-start bilateral diplomacy; at worst, it is the opening act of a new drama of terrorism and violence. Against this backdrop, the president's decision to wade into Middle East diplomacy makes little sense.