Alexander Levlovitz was born in Jerusalem, where he died the night of Sept. 13, on the Jewish New Year, as he returned from his family's holiday meal. He was only 64, and when he died from a rock hurled at his car, on the very evening of the holiday that symbolizes renewal and hope, he unwittingly became a symbol of the Jewish year 5776, which only just began.

With no foreseeable end to the long conflict with the Palestinians, the Israeli public has a clear tendency to ignore anything that has to do with the powder keg it is sitting on. The last few election cycles have proven that Israelis' interest in ending the conflict, or at least trying to advance a solution, is extremely limited. Actually, since the breakdown of the conference at Camp David in October 2000, with the participation of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the former chairman of the Palestinian Authority, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, the faith of Israelis in the possibility of reaching peace with the Palestinians has gradually eroded. 

While most Israelis want peace, and are willing to give up land for it, after more than 1,000 casualties from suicide attacks in Israeli cities during the second intifada, they stopped believing that it is possible. There was a time when the terms "peace" and "hope" would have been used to win elections. But after years of disappointment in diplomatic processes, terror emanating from the West Bank and unceasing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip following the 2005 disengagement led by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israelis have tired of it. 

Analysts who study public opinion polls tend to say that "the Israeli public is leaning to the right." But if we examine these processes in-depth, we discover that Israelis have simply become jaded and stopped believing that another way is possible. That is the reason that anyone who wants to become prime minister these days distances himself from talk of peace. Even politicians such as Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Zionist Camp, and Yair Lapid, the chair of Yesh Atid — both senior leaders of the center-left camp — run far away from any diplomatic statement that might sound too leftist. This trend has become more pronounced since the landslide victory of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 17 election.