Jim Hoagland has a useful commentary on the challenge that Tony Blair faces as the most recent aspirant to be a peace maker in the Middle East.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702251.html

Among his points is that the Palestinians and the Israelis must realize that they are small change compared to the larger conflicts centered in Iraq and Afghanistan. Implicit is that we must settle our disputes so that the world can get on with the bigger ones of Arab/Muslim militancy and population growth.

Elsewhere in the press are items about the reservations in Cologne about a mosque that will rival its cathedral; and a right wing Dutch political party that wants to outlaw the Koran.

Hoagland suggests that one of the keys to dealing with our small problem is for George W. Bush to press Israel into making difficult compromises.

That is the kind of proposal that will cause us, and the rest of the world, to start again on the wrong foot.

Israel has offered painful compromises, most recently and most prominently in the summer of 2000 at Camp David, and even more painfully a bit later in the Egyptian resort of Taba. Now Prime Minister Olmert and his advisers are returning to the same basic proposals, despite the domestic problems associated with the latest seven years of Palestinian violence. Olmert seems willing to concede almost all of the West Bank, the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, shared control over the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary, and compensating land from within Israel for those portions of the West Bank that Israel will retain.

Who is pressing the Palestinians to make difficult compromises? Israel's offers were not good enough for Arafat in 2000, and now the soft spoken Mahmoud Abbas is demanding more, and sooner than Olmert is willing or able to provide. Abbas also continues to express the Palestinian dream of refugees from 1948 and their children returning to homes that no longer exist, and he is not able or willing to assert security on that portion of the West Bank that he controls. The problem of Gaza is knottier than in the past, given Hamas control. The missiles are still being fired in the direction of Sderot.

Americans and others who express disappointment in Israel are leading themselves and the rest of us astray. They will get nowhere. Israeli leaders have offered reasonable proposals. They are not willing to commit suicide for themselves or their population. The ball remains in the court of the Palestinians. It has been there for the better part of 60 years. They have to do more than demand ever more generous terms from Israel.

The Germans will build their mosques; the Dutch will continue to enjoy their multi-cultural society and other goodies; Palestinians will continue to dream; Israel will continue to struggle, most likely prosper, and some Israelis will feel guilty for the misery of the Palestinians. Our ancestors wrote the Books of the Prophets, which criticized the rulers, the rich, and the mass of the population for being imperfect. Wisely, other ancestors never let the Prophets govern.

We have seen signs that Israel is like the other nations. Our own skinheads paint Nazi symbols in synagogues, beat up religious Jews, non-Jewish foreigners, Jewish and non-Jewish homeless and drug addicts. No surprise that they are Russian immigrants, who came under the Law of Return due to Jewish grandparents.

Politicians are pondering yet again a change in the Law of Return. It is not likely to happen before New Year 5768, and probably not before 5769, or 5770. Every once in a while something causes us to discuss the Law of Return: when an immigrant has gone bad, or when a messianic rabbi or secular Jew (often from overseas) spots another cluster of people in the Third World who think of themselves as Jews and want to come home. When the Law of Return gets on the table, politicians compete over which kind of potential immigrant should be let in or kept out. It becomes easier to leave things as they are.

Meanwhile, I extend the conventional blessings for this New Year. I will wait patiently for the next New Year. Let us not rush the Messiah.