Who says it's impossible to deepen the Israeli occupation by increasing construction in the settlements and approving new outposts, all the while prattling on at the White House about establishing a Palestinian state on the very same land? Who says it's impossible to hire a consultant who has spit in the face of the president of the United States and to also obtain free, state-of-the-art weaponry from the same president? Even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is not considered a big fan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promised that if elected, one of her first acts would be to invite him to the White House. In an article Clinton penned for the Jewish newspaper Forward and the Israeli daily Haaretz, the only victims of the occupation — a word nowhere to be found in the piece — are the citizens of Israel, who “have to look over their shoulders during everyday tasks, like carrying groceries and waiting for the bus.”

The latest Peace Index survey indicates that Israelis are reverting to their daily routines despite the current wave of violence. Most Israeli Jews, 64%, report that they have not changed their daily routines by cutting back on public transport or changing the way they shop. In addition, most Israelis do not seem to have absorbed the comments made Nov. 1 by Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, chief of Military Intelligence, about the link between Palestinian despair and terror attacks.

The Peace Index, conducted by the Evens Program in Mediation and Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute, shows that the vast majority of Israelis, 74%, rejects the contention that the current wave of terror attacks is the result of Palestinian despair over the stalemate in diplomatic negotiations. In other words, average Israelis do not blame their leadership and its policies for the absence of peace or the undermining of their personal safety. The major opposition parties, the Zionist Camp and Yesh Atid, have offered no practical diplomatic alternatives for change. Israelis thus have no choice but to adopt Netanyahu's fatalistic approach, according to which we shall forever live by the sword.

This acceptance of the way things are in the country and the lack of motivation to change them manifest themselves in other areas, not just in issues of diplomacy and defense. They are also typical of the attitude toward corruption, which indirectly and directly affects the well-being of each and every citizen. The protest slogan “We are sick of corrupt officials,” which led to the 1977 downfall of Mapai after 29 consecutive years in power, is a distant memory. Fewer than 8,000 people turned out the night of Nov. 7 for nationwide demonstrations to protest the government's plan for the ​distribution of resources and benefits from the country's natural gas reserves. What happened to the 500,000 citizens who protested in the summer of 2011 to demand social justice?