I have always found the US State Department one of the duller institutions and I cannot help but think they are behind the latest desperate salvo ^[1]to keep alive the career of Mahmoud Abbas, despite the PA leader’s electoral humiliation. The State Department Mind in its withering conventionality thinks because something has been done the same way (badly) for decades it must be right. But wouldn’t it be better for the Palestinians to have to face the reality of their choice – Hamas? The State Department approach amounts to the continued infantilization of the Palestinian people. We have seen the results. But perhaps the State Department and the Palestinians are both incapable of change.