The wasted year
Op-ed: If Israelis want a just, humane, peace-seeking and egalitarian country, 2013 was a waste of time
This seems like quite a lot, but in the Israeli mind nothing happened in the past year. The Israeli thought patterns – the immunity to changes in the world and even changes in Israel – remained as they were. The changes which took place in the world created, at the most, a PR effort.
Bibi allegedly became weaker, but he is in fact continuing to do as he pleases. The Iranian threat allegedly diminished, but the survival discourse has not changed and the defense budget is growing as always. Important statements were allegedly made about a re-integration of the Israeli society and about voluntary or involuntary participation of the haredim and Arabs in the shrinking mainstream; in fact that is all melting away, just like the high expectations over the social protest, of which nothing is left.
The euphoria which hit part of the Israeli public upon Lapid's election was shortly replaced by a sweeping disappointment, immediately followed by the fatigue and indifference we are so used to. Every few months a corruption or squandering affair involving the Netanyahu couple is revealed. The media protest vigorously. Then it fades away.
Falling more and more behind
The strongest political and social power in Israel is inertia. In Israel things are not good enough for people to be satisfied and not bad enough for people to do something. We live from day to day. If we were living in Switzerland, it would have been possible to continue living this way undisturbed, fixing small things here and there, and knowing that things will be okay. But Israel is not Switzerland and its problems require more than a cosmetic treatment.
The Israeli political system is getting accustomed to problems which could cause stronger societies to collapse; the postponement of the solution for the Palestinian problem (which is perceived in Israel as sort of annoying mosquito which arrives seasonally and disappears empty handed) prevents us from taking advantage of the major regional opportunities created as the Islamic movements weakened. The ongoing settlement and the ongoing deprivation of human rights from the Palestinians in the territories gradually lead to our exclusion (first cultural and then political) from the club of advanced countries.
Avoiding a solution to the deepening social rifts is turning us into a society in which each sector saves itself, regardless of the price others will pay. The deep lack of faith in the political system creates extremely dangerous possibilities for redefining the Israeli democracy.
All these problems are not unknown. A large part of the society in Israel knows that we are running out of the old conceptual and political fuel in our tank, and that new fuel must be put in to lead the Israeli society to the future. That is why hundreds of thousands took to the streets in what looks like it was ages ago. But the protest faded away. We are unsatisfied, but we don't really know what to do.
Zionism began from a vision. With a vision one can get far, even without nuclear abilities. The Israeli society has no vision. We don't know what we want to be when we grow up. Lacking an ideological goal worth fighting for and standing up for, the status quo becomes an ideal. In order to maintain the status quo, it's enough to repress any problem and reject any solution threatening it.
But those who try to mark time find themselves falling more and more behind. If we want a just, humane, peace-seeking and egalitarian country, last year was a waste of time.
