In the six months since the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks,there has been an upsurge of violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and 50 days of fighting in Gaza.Yet Kerry continues to meet separately with Palestinian and Israeli leaders,looking for an opening to restart talks on a two-state solution while keeping up momentum at home,where he says Americans cannot wall themselves off from the Middle East.“We have to be deeply engaged - deeply engaged - in this region because it is directly in the interest of our national security and our economy," he said.But in an essay for the magazine Politico, Cato Institute analyst Justin Logan says Washington overstates the region’s importance.“American attention to the Middle East is disproportionate compared to the Middle East’s strategic impact," he said.On security, Kerry says no ocean can shield Americans from danger.“And that is a primary reason why the Middle East matters. But it also matters because our friends are so important to us.We are proudly and unapologetically connected to Israel and many Arab states with whom we have worked closely for decades," he said.Those decades of military support should have changed the U.S. view of risks facing Israel, Logan says.“It has a qualitative military edge over all of its conceivable rivals in the Middle East. It has terrorism problems.
