Condoleezza Rice leaves today for Israel/Palestine/Egypt/Jordan. Before her departure she took the mike at the Washington DoS briefing, usually run by Sean McCormack, to join the Obama lovefest. She's heading into a hornet's nest: Israel's recent military excursion into Gaza has prompted retaliation. Both sides say they’d prefer to adhere to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire of this summer, but it would appear that they are open to other paths.