What does the Middle East offer America?

For decades American presidents have arrived in the Holy Land like earnest pilgrims searching for the Grail of a two-state solution. George W. Bush hoped to find it in 2003 with his “road map for peace”. Barack Obama came in 2013 when John Kerry, his secretary of state, was trying to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks. Even Donald Trump promised to “give it an absolute go”.

Joe Biden has lost the faith. His nearly 48-hour visit to Israel and Palestine, which began on July 13th, was designed to be an exercise in banality: shake a few hands, see a few sights, head back to the airport. No president in recent memory has arrived with so little to say about the region’s most intractable conflict.