Two scenes from the Middle East this week offer an amazing study in contrast. They demonstrate how the region has dramatically changed over the past few years. And yet, the more the Middle East changes, the more it remains the same.

Just look at the warm reception Israel’s foreign minister Tzipi Livni got in Doha, Qatar. The tiny emirate, home to Al Jazeera, rolled out red carpet for the visitor, who had ostensibly turned up to attend a regional forum on dem...

Perhaps Senator Barack Obama does not want to know that in 2007 alone the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed was 40 to 1, up from 4 to 1 during the period 2000-2005; that Israel’s escalation of violence since the staged Annapolis “peace conference” has been consistent with the Jewish state’s illegal policy of collective punishment; that Israeli military strikes on Gaza have killed hundreds of besieged Palestinians with tacit White House approval.

R...