The Opportunity Costs of John Kerry’s Mideast Diplomacy

Six months is not a long time when measured against the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which goes back generations. It is considerably longer when measured in the context of the Iranian nuclear program, which could achieve the capacity to produce undetected a bomb’s worth of fissile material in only twice that time.

So the criticism that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has spent too much time -- six months, to be precise -- in shuttle diplomacy between the Israelis and Palestinians is both churlish and well-taken. His efforts have resulted in the Israelis and Palestinians tentatively agreeing to sit down for new peace talks after a lapse of almost three years. Working to bring about a settlement is a worthwhile investment of U.S. time and energy -- but not if it comes at the expense of a more urgent priority, which is peacefully resolving the Iranian nuclear issue.