Go to Jerusalem

Go to Jerusalem, Mr. President.

Israel is anxious. It preferred the old Middle Eastern order. It could count on the despots, like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, to suppress the jihadists, reject Iran, and play the Israeli-Palestinian game along lines that created a permanent temporariness ever more favorable to Israeli power.

Israelis are doubly worried. They wonder, Mr. President, if you like them in a heart-to-heart way. You’ve been to Cairo, you’ve been to Istanbul, so what’s wrong with Jerusalem? Why won’t you come and kvetch with us, President Obama, and feel our pain?

Israelis are triply worried. Elections are unpredictable — just look at Gaza — and now they may be held across the Arab world! There’s the Muslim Brotherhood talking a good line but nursing menace. And what if Jordan goes, too?

“America is Israel’s insurance company and right now we need the C.E.O. to come and tell us, ‘You are not alone,”’ Daniel Ben-Simon, a Knesset member who recently left the Labor Party told me. “We especially need that because Israeli policy is not just a tragedy, it’s almost criminal.”

That’s right on both fronts. A great opportunity could be squandered as the Arab Spring unfurls. I find all the Israeli anxiety troubling for moral and strategic reasons. The moral reason is simple: What could be closer to the hearts of Jews than the sight of peoples fighting to throw off oppression and gain their dignity and freedom?

If Israel has come to such a pass that these noble struggles from Benghazi to Bahrain leave it not just cold but troubled, then what has become of the soul of the Jewish state?

The Middle East’s most vibrant democracy is missing the upside of the birth of new ones. First, when Arabs can legally assemble in places other than mosques, radical Islamism is dealt a blow. Second, American double-standards in backing the likes of Mubarak long gave demagogic ammunition to Israel’s enemies, chiefly Iran.

Third, subjugated peoples are angry peoples easily manipulated, whereas the empowered focus on improving their own lives, not conflict elsewhere. Fourth, accountability in Arab governance began right next door in the West Bank with Salam Fayyad’s program: Israel should get ahead of the democratizing wave by embracing that development rather than pooh-poohing it.

There’s no reason to think Arab liberation stops at Palestine’s door.

The Arab awakening is not yet about Israel — I never heard the word “Israel” during two weeks in Cairo — but that could change if another skirmish erupts. Nothing would radicalize regional sentiment, now focused on building rather than destroying, as quickly.

So the overwhelming American, European, Israeli and Arab interest lies in breaking the volatile Israeli-Palestinian deadlock. But how?

A little thing happened between the Egyptian and Libyan crises. The United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.

This was, I hear, an agonizing decision for Obama in that it amounted to a veto of his own sentiments, almost his words. He has said the United States does “not accept the legitimacy” of the settlements, which should stop. America’s main allies — including Britain, France and Germany — voted in favor.

Of course it’s Obama who’s facing an election next year where censure of Israel would cost him.

Obama, I was told, tried everything to get the Palestinians to withdraw the resolution. He offered the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, a package including a Quartet statement committing to using the 1967 borders as the basis for a resolution. The United States, unlike the European Union, has never been quite that far. But Abbas, feeling vulnerable, demurred — and the U.S. veto ensued.

That was a Palestinian mistake — a tactical thrill at the expense of strategic gain. The Palestinians are in urgent need of a coherent negotiating team.

Israel is in urgent need of direction. An altercation followed the vote between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He asked how Germany could chastise Israel and she expressed outrage at Israeli stalling. When Germany, Israel’s second-closest ally, gets exercised, exasperation is running high.

There’s exasperation here, too. Obama’s word is on the line. He said last year that by the time of the U.N. General Assembly in September, “We can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations — an independent, sovereign state of Palestine living in peace with Israel.”

September is six months from now.

I’d hoped there was an Israeli quid pro quo for that self-contradicting U.S. veto, a diplomatic nadir. There isn’t. Now Israel’s talking about “interim agreements” again. That won’t fly. Palestinians know by now who gains from permanent temporariness. Palestine wants sovereignty. Israel wants security. Those are non-negotiable demands.

Only an Obama gamble can break the logjam by September. He should go to Jerusalem in May and address the Knesset. He should spell out all the ways America will guarantee Israel’s security. He must coax Israel from the siege mentality that blinds it to the opportunities multiplying around it. He can spread the love.

A new Middle East deserves more than an old Israel.