More Settlements? More Deja Vu All Over the Region

I'm having trouble getting inspired today, in part because of a sense of deja vu. So many of today's headlines seem like headlines I've seen before, over a great many years. Examples:

• Of course Hillary Clinton's on her inaugural tour of the region as Secretary of State, supporting a two-state solution and meeting with Israeli and Egyptian leaders; but somehow most of the stories seem to be the same old story rehashed. I think the sense we've been down this road before is underscored by this report of plans for significant new construction in the settlements, although the Peace Now report has been dismissed by the government.
• There are six official candidates for President in Algeria. As expected, the only one most non-Algerians have ever heard of is Abdelaziz Bouteflika. I was rather proud of myself for having heard of Louisa Hanoune and Moussa Touati, vaguely. Hanoune is a veteran leftist female candidate; Touati I think I've encountered before. The others are new to me. No suspense here: all the major opposition parties are boycotting. Bouteflika gets a third term by a bigger margin than the first two. I hope he's healthy, despite the rumors which the Algerian media recently blamed on (who else?) Mossad and other evil influences. Didn't we have this election before?
  
• Oh, and the Iraqis have condemned 'Ali Hasan al-Majid to death again. Al-Jazeera says this is his third death sentence. It actually seems like more. It gives the media more opportunity to refer to "Chemical 'Ali," but does it bring anyone -- Iraqis, Iraqi Kurds, the rest of the world -- closer to closure? I'm not sure what fate I would choose for him, but never hearing about him again would be a part of it. Those days, inshallah, are gone for good, if Iraq is lucky. Show trials have a place, but three death sentences?
  
• The US is warning about violence against US citizens in Egypt. The fact is that the Khan al-Khalili incident was aimed at tourists generally and killed a French tourist; there was a minor incident in the Khan a few days later in which an American was cut in the face by one man with a knife, but that seems to have been an isolated incident. This account is the first I've heard of some incident on the Cairo metro.
  
• Israel, which one might think has other problems to attend to, seeing as how it has no government, no clear winner of the elections, just fought a war, and is hosting the new US Secretary of State, has a new scandal: the Navy Commander went to a strip club. Glad we're keeping our priorities straight.
  
• And I won't even report on violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is all too familiar.
  

To be honest, it's hard to come up with compelling commentary when so much of the day's events are deja vu. I'll post more later if inspiration strikes.