Fourth of some assorted footnotes to the preceding

The tendency of too many in the US media to adopt an "assumption of correctness" toward Israel - that is, assuming Israel is in the right and the Palestinians are in the wrong in any conflict unless it can be definitively and irrefutably proved otherwise - continues unabated. One recent example came from columnist Jason Diehl in the Washington Post, who on Thursday idiotically asserted that the settlements are irrelevant not only to the continuation of Israeli-Palestinian talks but to their outcome as well and that the only reason they're a problem now is that "the Obama administration has once again chosen to ask Netanyahu for an unnecessary concession," one that could lead to a "crisis" in US-Israel relations. He then insists that

[a]nother U.S.-Israel crisis is probably what Abbas is hoping for - and why he has taken a hard-line position on the settlement issue. ...

All along, Abbas has shown scant interest in these peace talks - he made a point of saying he was dragged to the bargaining table. ... If he were genuinely interested in reaching a peace settlement with Israel, he could set aside the settlement issue without risking his own hold on power.

In other words, Abbas is trying to make the talks fail for the purpose of sparking Diehl's "crisis." Exactly what the gain for Abbas is in such an eventuality, one more likely to spur Israel to more intensive occupation and population of the West Bank, is not explained. I doubt you're surprised.

In fact, blaming Abbas is an argument that is so far out there that even columnist Herb Keinon of the right-wing Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post didn't make it; instead, he blames Obama for the hang-up over settlements because in May 2009, he called for a complete settlement construction halt - and

if Obama was calling for total settlement moratorium, then Abbas could certainly not do anything less.

Which, on second thought, is not the same argument as Diehl's but it is every bit as weird. They start from similar points, follow different paths, but wind up at the same end: Whatever happens, it cannot be Israel's fault.