Prime ministers Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak both came into office expecting to get the peace process out of the way in the first year or two, after which they would revolutionize the society and economy. Instead they spent nearly every waking minute attempting to outmaneuver Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, and what little time was left keeping their coalitions afloat. We want Sharon as laser-focused on restoring security as Barak was in pursuit of a comprehensive peace. I'm coming to the conclusion, however, that being too focused on the question of survival can be self-defeating. If we become obsessed with achieving peace, the other side rightly concludes that it has little to lose by raising the price for peace sky high.
Normal life means attending to such minor things as our economy, society and environment.
As a result of the struggle for survival, politics in Israel has become strangely inverted. One great prospect offered by the unity government now under construction would be to flip our political spectrum into a healthier direction, like a doctor flipping a breech baby in utero . Rather than fighting about what we should agree on, we could make the desert bloom where now lies a political wasteland. Now ideologies have failed, the idea of separate ways in the face of foreign threats has failed. Unemployment is too high, inequality is staggering, our educational system and environment need work, and our bloated government bureaucracy is more often part of the problem than the solution.