Before the Iraq war, optimistic neo-conservatives came up with a new slogan about the Israel-Palestine conflict: “The road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad.” American victory in Iraq would create the political conditions for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Now that the US is well on the way to failure in Iraq a new theory is doing the rounds. This time, “the road to Jerusalem runs through Tehran.” It is the rising power of Iran – fostered by the war in Iraq – that may create the conditions for peace between Israel and Palestine.