Fallaci Award winner John Bolton has a piece in the Washington Post evaluating UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s first week on the job: Don’t Ban Your Instincts, Ban Ki-moon.

Even more problematic than the death penalty debate was another matter Ban raised during his first week on the job. In an interview, he argued that “if the issues with the conflicts between Israel and Palestine go well,” other issues, such as Iran and Lebanon, “are likely to follow suit.” This position is unquestionably the received wisdom in Turtle Bay, and also reflects the view of Ban’s predecessor.

It is unclear whether Ban was articulating his personal view or was merely following the talking points provided by the U.N. secretariat. The idea that Hezbollah’s efforts to destabilize and overthrow the democratically elected government of Lebanon might be curtailed or eliminated by progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front is hard to take seriously. Similarly, believing that peace and stability would emerge in Iraq if only those troublesome Israelis could be brought into line is more a matter of faith than of logic.

Ban’s reliance on this favorite U.N. cliché, however, is more than simply a lapse in judgment; it may well reveal his intentions for future involvement in the Middle East, an involvement embodied in the “Quartet,” an ungainly occasional gathering of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the secretary general. U.S. policymakers should start working overtime now to correct the misimpression that Ban may have obtained from his briefers. In the even worse case that Ban’s comment reflects his own views, the need for corrective action is even more acute.