JERUSALEM -- 'Twas a famous victory for diplomacy when, in 1991 in Madrid, Israelis and Palestinians, orchestrated by the United States, engaged in direct negotiations. Nineteen years later, U.S. policy is enabling Palestinians to avoid direct negotiations by engaging in "proximity" talks. The Palestinians talk to Americans, who toil to get them back to 1991 -- to direct negotiations. But negotiations about what?

JERUSALEM -- In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner.