Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met at the White House today for U.S.-sponsored peace talks.

You can call me a realist; the talks will fail.

The Israelis will be lucky only if these latest round of “talks” don’t result in a third intifada.

Why do I say this? Because there is no hunger on the ground in the Palestinian territories for peace. Hamas, with its pledge to destroy Israel still in place, controls the Gaza Strip and continues to fire rockets into Israel. They also still hold Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit – or his body. A look at memri.org, the Middle East Media Research Institute will show that the Israelis are still demonized in Palestinian media, suicide bombers and other terrorists are revered in Palestinian society and Abbas holds onto his power by his fingernails (and he’s 1 1/2 years past the end of his elected term).

Does anyone really believe that a) he’ll sign on to a peace deal and b) he’d live more than 24 hours after his return to the West Bank after signing the aforementioned deal and c) a majority of Palestinians would abide by the deal?

Peace won’t come until there is a fundamental change in Palestinian society – and that shows no sign of occurring anytime soon.

On a related note: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has consumed so much Kool-Aid it’s a wonder his eyes aren’t cherry-colored.

President Obama is embarking on something I’ve never seen before — taking on two Missions Impossible at the same time. That is, a simultaneous effort to heal the two most bitter divides in the Middle East: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Shiite-Sunni conflict centered in Iraq.

Friedman’s eyes must’ve been closed from 2003-2008, when President George W. Bush was doing the same thing – and better.