Observers of America’s policy in the Middle East will recognize the telltale talking points: the urging of restraint in the face of terror; the implied cycle of violence. The peace process has been dead for years, but the mindset behind it survives.

Let’s be clear. The timing of these diplomatic platitudes was grotesque. Here was the official bureau of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, which deals with the Palestinian Authority, calling on Israel to refrain from responding to the worst slaughter of innocent Jews since the Holocaust.

The original post was soon erased. Subsequent statements from President Biden and his senior advisers have dropped the both-sidesism and focused instead on Israel’s right to defend herself.

Nevertheless, this administration has a serious problem. While the official rhetorical response to the attack has been strong, there is a wide chasm between the president’s words and his administration’s actions.

[No kidding. There are few who are better prepared to lay out those issues than Eli Lake, too, so be sure to read it all. It’s time to put aside delusions and to address the seriousness of the issue, which is Palestinian refusal to engage in any “two-state solution” as anything more than a Final Solution to the Jews. And that comes straight out of Iran, with whom Biden has played Appeasement Boogie for the last two-plus years. — Ed]