Just before the Jewish New Year, Obama had a conference call with a group of rabbis. (These calls, by the way, are invariably cringe inducing, most especially last year’s, when Obama told them to go hawk ObamaCare from their bimas.) This time, Obama solemnly instructed the rabbis not to take seriously anything the Palestinians and Israelis say about the peace talks in public. Honestly, the talks are going great. We know, because the president is “stunned at how cordial and constructive the talks were.” I wonder if he’ll be stunned when they collapse. In other words, the fact that Abbas continues to vilify the Jewish state (presumably now both in English and Arabic) and threatens to walk out in no way indicates that he’s not serious about peace, you see.

Meanwhile, for a dose of reality, Charles Krauthammer explained to us why Mahmoud Abbas has zero incentive to stick it out:

You don’t need to be prescient to see that coming. Abbas has already announced that is what he’ll do. That would solve all of Abbas’s problems. It would obviate signing on to a final settlement, fend off Hamas and make Israel the fall guy. The trifecta. Why not walk out? The world, which already condemns Israel even for self-defense, will be only too eager to blame Israel for the negotiation breakdown. And there is growing pressure to create a Palestinian state even if the talks fail — i.e., even if the Palestinians make no concessions at all. So why make any?

Too bad the president and rabbis didn’t discuss that, nor presumably the real threat to Israel’s and our security — the looming possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran.