It’s Almost September, and Nobody Cares

Washington leaders are off for summer vacation, Netanyahu is busy with the social protests and Abu Mazen is looking for a way to get down from the tall tree he climbed up.

In Washington D.C., summer vacation has begun now that the politicians have finished handling domestic policy and temporarily averted the threat of U.S. insolvency by agreeing to gradually raise the ceiling of the national budget deficit.

The Democrats, headed by President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, had positioned themselves on one side, while Republicans, whose tone was set by Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel, had taken the other.

The above struggle was, of course, far more than an economical battle; in fact, it was totally political. A compromise was finally reached once the two parties began behaving responsibly and agreed to cede certain demands, primarily because they realized the grave implications and the deadly harm the U.S. economy would face unless they achieved a solution.

At the moment, with the jeopardy of default removed, Washington’s leaders can head off for their summer vacations. The city is now almost completely empty of politicians, and the agenda has correspondingly changed, as well. The Middle East peace process, not a centerpiece on the American list of priorities either way, has dropped further from the table and finds itself somewhere between the good news about the elimination of the threat of a strike from the National Football League and the lamentable death of British singer Amy Winehouse.

Perhaps if We Close Our Eyes, September Will Pass Without Our Noticing

After August, the month of September will arrive, bringing with it, as the defense minister describes, the threat of a political tsunami, but nothing new is happening on the issue. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is looking for every ladder he could possibly use to descend with dignity from the tree up which he climbed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preoccupied with curbing the welcomed social protest that finally rose up in Israel, while Obama celebrates his birthday and leaves on vacation. It looks as though the leadership calendar jumps from August directly to October. It is likely that our political leaders hope we will all close our eyes tightly and September will pass before we know it. The problem is that this kind of leap is not going to happen, and September will inevitably come.

Abbas, Netanyahu and Obama are responsible for trying to come up with the formula that would postpone or eliminate the humiliation, embarrassment and peril the results of the U.N. vote indicate.

Unfortunately for us, Abbas alone is no longer capable of influencing the current state of affairs, since the recognition of the Palestinian state is a train that has gotten underway. Benjamin Netanyahu is suffering a lack of long-term vision and carries on tactical politics and fruitless fights for containment that express themselves in trips to relatively insignificant countries out of hope that the outcome of the vote in the General Assembly will be less harsh for Israel.

Obama was supposed to walk inside of this vacuum; however, Washington officials keep speaking pejoratively of the significance of the vote in New York, diminishing the importance of the resolution and advising the president not to intervene. It appears he does not disagree.

Obama Can still Fulfill His Duties as an Adult in Charge

The Americans understand that in the month of September, the General Assembly will recognize the Palestinians’ right to a sovereign country within the 1967 borders; nevertheless, they believe that this wave will be stopped in the Security Council, where the U.S. is to veto such a resolution and claim that echoes of the fighting will not go on the ground.

The Americans took an economic risk in Washington. Eventually, though, they pulled together and made decisions best fitting the situation. In the Middle East, the gamble might be way more dangerous. Instead of making an effort to prevent the deterioration of the current conditions and a loss of control, Abbas, Netanyahu and Obama are merely closing their eyes and hoping for something good to come out of it.

The true leaders must not do so because consequences could be severe. Abbas and Netanyahu are captives to their own concept and enhance their people’s desperation, but Obama can still play his role as an adult in charge and suggest decent alternatives. He still has some time to demonstrate the responsibility appropriate to his post. Soon we will find out whether his fiftieth birthday will have brought Obama that wind of change he likes to talk about. All of us should be hopeful that it will lead him to actions as well.