Washington sits on its hands

The terms we routinely use for our situation are beginning to sound more literary than political. "Road map" could be from a Shlomo Artzi song performed by the Gevatron. "Political horizon" is a phrase that suggests we're dealing with poetry, not politics.

The horizon, in the Israeli-Arab context, is not an especially successful image. Every child knows that a horizon is tricky; the closer you approach the farther it moves out of reach. The Middle East does not need horizons, it needs leaders with horizons, and they better be broad ones. But the world of this region's leaders - both ours and theirs - is as narrow as an ant's - another image taken from poetry.

Condoleezza Rice and Tzipi Livni borrowed the horizon from old Hollywood movies, which they must have loved in their romantic period. Rice and Livni are walking arm in arm toward the distant horizon, but this heavenly gliding is usually toward the sunset, while we here are still waiting for the sun to rise. This beautiful betrothal also marks the happy ending to this movie, we're still waiting for it to begin.