All is Sweetness and Light Everlasting

"The conversation took place in a pleasant atmosphere, I would say constructive and businesslike. What was seen on the outside, was evident inside as well. [It was ] one of the best meetings I have had with Obama and I think the other side felt the same way."
"the conversation was very relaxed, and honest. No one hides the differences between us, and now the question is what to do with them. We have a common interest in preventing Iran from violating the agreement that was signed with it, and we will cooperate on this issue."

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"I did not feel any pent-up tension which is sometimes felt. The tone and essence of the conversation was very productive as well. There were no arguments and confrontations.
"We did not focus on an amount, [increase of U.S. military aid] but I presented our needs, and we hope he accepts our analysis of the regional changes. The region has turned upside down compared to the previous decade, the previous agreement was signed in 2007 and it is impossible to compare the Middle East now to what it was then."
"There is a genuine desire to reach an agreement and that is very important for us. I appreciate that President Obama wants to do so during his tenure. In fact we are ahead of schedule by two years, and I think there is great importance that there is a common willingness, both by the [Israeli] government and the American government, both by Obama and by me, to complete it seriously and in depth while, of course, taking our needs into account."
"The main objective [in the Israel-Palestinian issue] is the desire to avoid tensions. The issue of preventing a flare-up in the area is in Israel's interest no less than it is an American interest. Just like we are working in Gaza: on the one hand we have deterrence, while ensuring there is no humanitarian crisis there and providing regular supplies to the population, and it serves the Israeli interest."
"There are things that can be done that will increase friction and tension, and there are things we can do to lower the tension. What we're trying to do is differentiate between the population and the terrorists, and are promoting things in that spirit."
"The challenge we are working on at the moment is handling the intersection of the Internet and Palestinian nationalism and more so the radical Islam that is attached to it. This is the real problem."
"I repeated Israel’s red lines. We will not tolerate attacks from Syrian territory, and we will not agree to Iran opening a second front on the Golan Heights."
"I said we cannot accept a settlement with Syria which leaves it as the scene of attacks against Israel. We cannot accept it. The agreement should include the cessation of the use of Syrian territory for indirect or direct attacks on Israel."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahyu

They're working on it. Benjamin Netanyahu proving to his harshest critics that he isn't totally averse to cultivating the American president, playing to his issues while clarifying Israel's, making it clear that there are red lines and Barack Obama knows all about red lines. The American President is amenable himself to demonstrating how cozy he can be with someone he detests, and his newfound amicable relations with his Israeli counterpart ably demonstrates that he is not as claimed, averse to mending interpersonal relations with someone he has in the past contemptuously insulted.

No probing questions about West Bank settlements, no urging of the Israeli Prime Minister to relax tensions by lowering the heat on accusations levelled against the Palestinian Authority and its incitement-to-violence-under-the-guise-of-sanctimonious-nationalism of a dispirited, tired, and oppressed society losing faith and surrendering to violence as a last-ditch effort to show the world what pitiable victims they are. No, these two, are brilliant before the flash of the cameras, showing the world how friends get along.

It's a little bilious, a little headache-inducing, given all the strident accusations and pained admissions of failure on the part of the other to fully understand just what a catastrophic error has been made in re-balancing the mordant issue of sectarian weight of influence in the volatile Middle East where anger, suspicion, accusations and threats are as natural as breathing. And where as it happens, one country after another is slowly imploding in a paroxysm of raging bloodshed.

Well, there must be a logical reason why the geography reflecting a tribal, religious region of barbarically conflicting and paleolithic-era conspiratorial cliques of oil-sodden tyrants find themselves staving off slavering, scimitar-wielding jihadis bent on taking souvenir heads with them to Paradise as proof they have committed the cardinal acts worthy of martyrdom. What has set them all ablaze, beyond the clan-tribe-sect animosities setting off anew a volcano of hatred resulting in a burning gush of lava consuming the territory?

Arab foreign ministers searched on Monday for ways to halt what one called Israel’s “dangerous escalation” of violence against Palestinians. (File photo: AP)

Funny you should ask, when the correct answer is clear and unequivocal: Israel: guilty as charged. And Arab foreign ministers searched on Monday at a meeting of the Arab League for ways to put a stop to what one called Israel’s "dangerous escalation" of violence against Palestinians. Tens of thousands may be killed in Iraq and Syria and Libya as any vestige of humanity and order dissolves in the eternal battles between Sunni and Shia, but Israel has 'killed' 74 Palestinians, only half of whom have been alleged attackers.

Whereas ten Israelis and one Israeli Arab have been killed by psychotic lunatics while violence spreads from Jerusalem, the West Bank, Tel Aviv to the Gaza Strip. The beloved Al-Aqsa mosque is under siege, an outrage too horrible to even contemplate, but what else can it be called when Israeli authorities will not permit rock-throwing, hate-chanting, Jew-baiting Palestinian youth and crones to ascend the Noble Sanctuary?

The outrageous nerve of Jews to believe they have a right to pray at the Temple Mount. Simply because ancient Biblical texts and archaeological digs provide what Jews consider evidence of their heritage at their most sacred symbol of Judaism is no reason for them to believe they are entitled to approach, let alone pray at the third holiest site in Islam. The Jews venerate an ephemeral idealization, a memory of a time of primal discovery of monotheism that exists only in their minds, absent reality, whereas Muslims see before them the very place where Mohammad ascended to Paradise.

"This emergency meeting comes with the dangerous escalation by the Israeli government, the settlers, the Jewish extremist groups, and the Israeli forces in the blessed city of Jerusalem", United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan told the meeting as he chaired the 22-member bloc, reiterating that the Palestinian 'issue' remains the key to peace and security in the region.

"We gather today to take a decision about what we can do to stop these crimes and violations", the UAE minister stated, while Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi urged the UN Security Council and others to work towards an end to the conflict. And as soon as Israel bows out of the Middle East, taking its leave of heritage and haven for Jews worldwide, all the conflicts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East will suddenly deflate, and civility and peace tippy-toe in where they have never before ventured.