Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threw herself at two intractable Mideast problems — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq — during a brief trip to the region, and encountered the reality that the U.S. has few options other than patience. Attending a U.S.-backed Mideast democracy and development summit in Jordan, Rice used the opportunity to try to bolster a tenuous cease-fire in the Palestinian territory of Gaza and press influential Arab states to support fragile democratic governments in Iraq and Lebanon. Full Story