In Israel, ostensible calm belies a dangeorusly volatile situation
March 2, 2010
During a recent conversation, an Israeli friend described the occupation and the conflict as ‘background noise.’ As long as he is not personally affected, the old cliche ‘out of sight; out of mind’ was pretty much coined for people like my friend ‘Dror.’
A resident of greater Tel Aviv, where he lives with his wife and children, Dror is a secular, social liberal who works in hi-tech and lives a typically middle class, western middle class lifestyle. Once an avid supporter of the Oslo Accords, Dror was at Rabin Square (then Kings of Israel) singing for peace on the night in November 1995 when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Today, Dror is a hawk. For him, as for most Israelis, the suicide bombings are proof that the Palestinians are not interested in peace. The best Israelis can do is ‘contain’ the conflict – i.e., prevent suicide bombings.