Sometimes you just have to wait for the right opportunity.
It could be a sports game, where you wait for your rival to make a mistake.
It could be a blind date gone bad, where you wait for that phone call you planned earlier with your best friend.
It could be that windfall you needed to finally buy that house.
It’s always about a set of conditions that finally, at the right time, converge to make an opportunity.
That opportunity has come for the United States.
John Kerry has blamed the Israelis (or did he?) for the recent impasse. The Israelis are blaming the Palestinians, of course. And the Palestinians blame anyone they can (as they should).
It doesn’t really matter, since the whole blame game has no right to exist to begin with.
There is no way one can put equal blame on Israeli occupiers and occupied Palestinians. Were blacks to blame for Apartheid?
So blaming isn’t really important.
What’s important is the opportunity. This an opportunity for the U.S. to finish its job as “mediator.”
I put that word in quotes, since we all know the best mediator is one who is impartial.
The U.S. was never that.
In fact, in its 20 years as “mediator” under the framework of the Oslo Accords, the U.S. has not only failed in bringing the sides any closer – it has enabled the deepening of the colonization process in the West Bank on every front.
If the U.S. had been a CEO of an enterprise, the board of directors would have kicked it out the door years ago for horrific management and results.
So, the U.S. is bad at this. It’s really that simple.
It also has other things on its mind.
President Barack Obama has proved again and again that he is much more a domestic affairs leader than a foreign affairs one.
Israel has proven again and again that it is not truly interested in ending the occupation.
The media, wrongfully so, is playing it out as if both sides don’t want to fix this.
But who cares?
You shouldn’t, America. It makes you look good. It makes it look like it’s their fault (even though it’s yours, too).
Just don’t do what you did last time, like James Baker. Empty threats, and you kept on mediating.
Now is your chance to get out of this.
So carpe diem, America!
This will give you more time to focus on other issues.
But most importantly, your retirement as “mediator” will be the best thing to ever happen to this conflict.