Dr. Uzi Arad, foreign policy advisor to then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sought to downplay the importance of terrorism in the context of other, greater strategic threats faced by Israel. Boaz Ganor, director of the Herzliyah Center argued passionately that Israel urgently needs to reach informal but clear agreements on how society reacts to terrorism. BESA Center director Prof. Efraim Inbar told the audience packed with IDF officers that 'personal security' has become the new code-word within Israeli society for the equivalent of peace with its Arab neighbors. We no longer expect to be eating humus in Damascus, touring the pyramids, or looking for bargains in Arab markets.
Normalization is a mirage.
What we expect from peace is nothing more, or less, than personal security. We all observe more emphasis on individualistic values at the expense of promoting collective goals and aspirations. The notion of personal security seems to be the replacement within today's Israel of the weakened fears of collective survival, real or imagined.