President Obama's appointment of former Senator George Mitchell to the post of Middle East Envoy seems like a commitment to continue along a diplomatic path that refuses to be guided by the facts on the ground and is doomed to failure.

Mitchell has failed with his approach before. He refuses to see that there are moral differences between the players in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His Mitchell Report on the riot at the Temple Mount whitewashed Yasser Arafat's role in leading a planned riot. Mitchell acts like he believes that terrorists are just misunderstood protesters.

For a well reasoned criticism of the Mitchell approach I strongly urge you read a paper published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs by two young British scholars, John Bew and Martyn Frampton.

Bew and Frampton directly take on the mistaken notion that the peace making model of Northern Ireland (a project associated with Mitchell) is applicable all over the world. As fate would have it, a book length treatment of their analysis is about to be published.

In accepting his latest appointment, Mitchell made it clear that he feels that a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians is right around the corner. This is troubling because a settlement requires agreement between at least two parties and on the Palestinian side the parties are terrorists. While Mitchell has not said he would deal with Hamas we fear that his approach will lead to the United States closing its eyes to right and wrong as it treats Israel and Hamas as equal partners.