I'd love to help out, but I've been kind of busy.

Well played, that monarch:

In Jordan, the state news agency reported that in a meeting about the extremists on Wednesday, King Abdullah II had told Secretary of State John Kerry “that the Palestinian cause remains the core of the conflict in the region” and that Jordan was focusing on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

It's true, you know. I guess back in July, when Gaza was under attack,  nobody could have imagined the United States would want to gather a coalition of Sunni powers to attack the Sunni Caliphate that had improbably declared itself on June 29.  But it could have been predicted that they might want to do it for some purpose or other.

As long as the US remains the chief patron and enabler of Israel's violent rule over the Palestinian territories, it's going to be hard for the other countries in the region to take our country seriously as the world's purveyor of peace and freedom.

Looking for survivors and bodies at the Qassam Mosque. Photo by Paolo Pellegrin/Magna, for the New York Times.