Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Two data points and a forecast from Israel: between 2010 and 2022, GDP grew by 60 per cent and property prices more than doubled, and estate agents expect prices to go on up because of a wave of immigration by Jews seeking refuge from post-October 7 anti-semitism. The data points serve as a reminder that Netanyahu's basic premise that "Israel could thrive without addressing the Palestinian issue" (as Aluf Benn puts in in a must-read Foreign Affairs cover story) didn't seem wrong to many at the time even if it has been shown to be catastrophically wrong since. The forecast points to a sense of wartime solidarity within Israel that has so far transcended politics. Foreign Affairs is published in DC by the Council on Foreign Relations. Benn is editor-in-chief of Haaretz. His piece is a cri-de-coeur for Israel to wake up and recognise it can have no lasting peace without a Palestinian state. He starts by quoting General Moshe Dayan's eulogy for a single Israeli soldier murdered near Gaza in 1956. "Let us not cast blame on the murderers," Dayan said. For years they had been sitting in refugee camps while "we have been transforming the land and the villages where they and their fathers dwelt into our estate". He ends by warning that if Israel fails to seize the moment and reconcile, it faces a dark age.