On this day - September 13 - in 1993, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands at the White House and signed a framework for peace between Palestinians and Israel. I was in Jerusalem at the time.

For decades, the U.S. has tried to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those efforts, despite the deep passion among the mediators and the endless work with both sides, ultimately failed. Robert ...