Why is President Barack Obama in such a rush to come here next month? Why, at the beginning of February, did he hurry to announce a visit planned for mid-March; why doesn’t he give the new government 100 days' grace to consolidate its policies? After all, we are talking about vital issues such as the state’s permanent borders, its security, its relations with its neighbors and the uprooting of tens of thousands of people from their homes. In the four years of Obama’s first term of office, he didn’t set foot here. Even when he visited the neighbors — in Turkey and Egypt (remember the Cairo speech?) — he passed up a courtesy visit to Jerusalem.

President Obama will not get to Jerusalem and Ramallah before the swearing-in of the new Israeli government. That complex task may only coalesce into a coalition agreement at the last minute, in the middle of March.

So why now?

It is hard to believe that White House officials and Washington’s State Department are unaware of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political schedule and the tremendous challenges that await him. We can assume that the decision about the timing of the visit, as well as the decision to break the news in the midst of the coalition negotiations, were not made offhandedly. Out of my longstanding familiarity with American procedures, decisions such as these are usually made only after much consideration, discussion and planning. In my mind’s eye I see the president’s advisors browsing daily updates from the embassy in Tel Aviv, including selections from the Israeli press on the coalition negotiations. They, too, have probably discovered that a magnifying glass is needed to find the words “diplomatic process,” “peace negotiations,” “permanent agreement,” “security arrangements,” “evacuation of settlements” and any other expression related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. On the other hand, they are finding a profusion of expressions along the lines of “equality in sharing the burden,” “middle class” and “social justice."