A Meeting That Signifies Nothing

A number of you out there asked me why I had not commented on the big Obama-Netanyahu-Abu Mazen meeting in New York today. The reasons are:
1) I'm trying to get some journalism done;
2) The meeting means nothing. I've been doing a lot of reading lately about the minutiae of Israeli-Arab talks over the past thirty years, and I've come to various depressing conclusions. Well, strike that, I'm coming to various depressing conclusions, and to a question: What does it mean if there is never peace?

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2009/09/a-meeting-that-signifies-nothing/27024/