The Bush administration isn’t doing itself proud on the matter of Israeli settlements. A couple of weeks ago Elliot Abrams, chief of Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, was sent to Israel to “discuss” with Sharon the announced plans to build 600 new apartments in the town of Maale Adumim. Although Abrams is sometimes cited as a member of the “neocon cabal” that allegedly twists U.S. foreign policy to fit the nefarious schemes of the Likud Party, he was actually positioning himself to the left of the Israeli Labor Party by making Maale Adumim an issue at all....