In the US liberal fantasy that is the West Wing, there is a scene when chief of staff Leo McGarry is standing tentatively outside a door in the basement of the White House summoning the courage to enter a secret Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He turns to the VP and asks: “Do I have enemies in that room?”.

Entering rooms when we don’t know what will happen inside is often a source of fear and anxiety. Inevitably the Germans have a word for it: Schwellenangst.

A tremendous amount of effort and political capital has been expended in recent months by the White House, and in particular secretary of state John Kerry, to get the two sides of the Israeli Palestinian conflict across the threshold and back into the negotiating room. This week that effort paid off. Read the article in full on Left Foot Forward.