Last year -- in stories from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times -- we saw the emergence of a narrative that Palestinians in the West Bank are living through an economic miracle. One very important missing piece of this puzzling story is Gaza and its desperate state of affairs. While this may seem like a small story in the context of much larger conflict, the economic well-being of West Bank residents has taken on increasing importance as leaders on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide are banking on economic growth as a route to a viable two-state solution, while simultaneously ignoring the situation in Gaza. If there is one thing the Palestinians certainly aren't buying, it's this "West Bank economic miracle" narrative.

I’m back this week from two weeks in Israel and the West Bank. I was there doing research on the economic situation in the West Bank, trying to understand the role of the private sector in development. The end result of the research should be available in about a month and a half. In the meantime, though, you can check out some pictures from the trip.

Take a more belligerent posture on Iran and give up on Israeli-Palestinian peace. Those are the two policy prescriptions Ephraim Karsh gives us in a New York Times op-ed today called “Muslims won’t play together.” I’m not going to take the time to argue with his policy prescriptions (I argued here for continued engagement with Iran, and I believe the US has a fundamental role to play in promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace). I do think the way in which Karsh arrived at his conclusions, though, gives us a great introduction to how to do bad Middle East analysis. Here are a few...

There’s no denying it: Iran-related security challenges are extremely complex, and any progress will require time, patience, and determination. Anyone who argues that there is a quick fix to long-simmering disagreements with Iran is at best uninformed and at worst willfully foolish. The Obama administration seems to understand these fundamental facts and has continued with its dual-track policy of engagement and pressure even in the face of critics who portray engagement as weak or naïve. In a memo I co-authored for Third Way, we argue that engagement has shown concrete results and continues to...