The window of opportunity for peace is closing, said the US Sec'y of State. In 1991. And 2003.

From JPost:

In his first address to an American Jewish audience as secretary of state on Monday, John Kerry made a passionate case for renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, calling on both sides to "summon the courage" to negotiate.

"We are running out of time," Kerry said. "We are running out of possibilities."

While reassuring the pro-Israel crowd that America would always support and defend the Jewish State, Kerry warned the American Jewish Committee that the status quo in the region was unsustainable.

"A stalemate today will not remain tomorrow," Kerry said. "In this conflict, the simple fact is tomorrow is not guaranteed to look like today."

"Let’s be clear: If we do not succeed now – and I know I’m raising those stakes – but if we do not succeed now, we may not get another chance. So we can’t let the disappointments of the past hold the future prisoner."

Of course, tomorrow's Arab leaders are also not guaranteed to fulfill the obligations of today's Arab leaders. But why worry about that? The goal is signing a paper, not peace!

Anyway, here is today's déjà vu:

"The reason for the trip, quite frankly, was because we don't know how long this window of opportunity might last," Mr. Baker told reporters on his plane before landing here at the outset of the trip for talks in Israel, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan,

"We don't think things should be permitted to simply drift," Mr. Baker said. "It's been over three weeks since we were in Israel and almost four since we were in Riyadh, and the President felt, and I felt, that it's time to try and push the envelope a little further if we can and see whether or not we can make some progress."

During Mr. Baker's peacemaking swing three weeks ago, he gently explored with Arab and Israeli leaders whether they might be willing to take some "confidence building" steps to reduce mutual suspicions and pave the way for direct negotiations at some kind of international meeting.

There is one big difference between Baker and Kerry, however. Baker didn't really believe the nonsense he was spouting about the urgency for a solution, but Kerry seems to believe it completely:

At his joint news conference with Mr. Bush in Houston, Mr. Baker seemed to inadvertently reveal his own deep ambivalence about the real prospects for peace. It came through in his tortured answer to a question about what justified his assessment that after the gulf war there was now a "window of opportunity" to settle the Arab-Israel issue.

Mr. Baker answered: "Well, the new factors are generated, of course, by what happened as a consequence of the gulf war. I'm not suggesting that there are any new factors. I'm not suggesting new factors -- there may be some -- that have occasioned this trip."

Pressed by reporters as to why he insists on pursuing such an incremental, step-by-step approach, Mr. Baker said: "Neither the United States nor anybody else can impose peace in the Middle East. And you are not going to get peace in the Middle East unless the parties themselves really want it, and at the most the United States can only serve as a catalyst."

For all of Baker's problems, he at least knew the difference between rhetoric and reality. Kerry does not seem to, and as a result he is digging himself into a credibility hole that he will inevitably topple into.

But he wasn't the most recent Secretary of State to warn that the "window of opportunity" was closing:

Colin L. Powell insisted tonight that this was the right moment to act.

"The president turned his attention to this issue because he sees that there are these new dynamics in the equation," Mr. Powell said on ABC tonight. "And everybody knows we can't stay where we are. The Palestinian economy has been destroyed. The Israeli economy is in difficulty. Israel doesn't want to keep its troops deployed forever in the cities and towns. So I think all the pieces have come together, and we are here at Sharm el Sheik to take advantage of the new elements in the equation and this window of opportunity that has opened."

The funny thing is that things are better now for both the Israelis and Palestinian Arabs than they were ten years ago. All without the "peace process" moving forward an inch.