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.
