In the late summer of 1975, after an all-day negotiating session in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's Jerusalem office, Henry Kissinger approved a midnight addition to an agreement with Israel. The U.S., he pledged, would not "recognize or negotiate with" the Palestine Liberation Organization until the P.L.O. accepted Israel's right to exist. Washington later added another condition, that the P.L.O. renounce terrorism. With the exception of occasional clandestine contacts and the publicized breach that cost Andrew Young his U.N. ambassadorship, the stricture has been U.S. policy ever since.
Rightfully so: there was nothing to gain from dealing with murderous thugs implacably dedicated...