For Israeli military reservists, the tour of duty is now two months a year instead of one. Increasing numbers of soldiers are opting for jail rather than serve in the Territories. Israel peace activists are being prosecuted and imprisoned for meeting with PLO representatives. Israeli media is being censored and closed, and Israeli journalists prosecuted for reporting on the Intifada. Israeli construction, agriculture and many service industries are at a virtual standstill due to the absence or irregularity of Palestinian labor.
Tourism is commensurately in extremis.
In 1988, all the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Christmas back in Bethlehem. Despite this, the Israeli electorate recently voted for a military solution, for harsher repression, more beatings, more killings, more deportations, more religious fundamentalism. In early November 1988, newly victorious Prime Minister Shamir declared the first task of his new government would be the dispersal of the Palestinian refugee camps, begining with Jabaliya in Gaza. To the resolutions of the PNC, Shamir responded with skepticism and distrust, asserting repeatedly that he would never negotiate with the PLO and that there would never exist a Palestinian state. Shamir has been equally negative to the idea of a United Nations sponsored peace conference.