I've been studying this thing for 20 years now, ever since I was trapped in Beirut with some other American cowboys who all would have been better off writing about chili cookoffs in Tucson, and the pattern to the conflict is so simple, and the way to disrupt it is so obvious, that you're gonna think I'm naive when I say this.
The following pattern has happened at least 30 times in the last decade:
1) There's a lull in the action.
2) Somebody in America says, "Let's make a peace plan."
3) The Israelis have a screaming debate about whether it's time for a peace plan.
4) The Palestinians have fistfights about whether it's time for a peace plan.
5) The evangelical Christians in America put heavy-duty pressure on the United States to not give away a single inch of Israeli land.
6) A date is set for the two sides to meet.
7) The Palestinians blow something up.
8) The date is changed.
9) The Palestinians blow something bigger up.
10) The meeting is canceled.
11) The Israelis blow up some Palestinians.
12) America gets all upset. It's time for "restraint," America says. It's time for "concessions on both sides," America says.
13) "We told you so," say the American Christians.
14) There's a lull in the action.
15) Start over at 2.
