When I was a boy, Israel was a leftist country. We had huge peace rallies, the Oslo Accords were celebrated as if they were going to save the world, and we even had a subject in school called “peace” in honor of the treaty with Jordan. People who were skeptical of this all-consuming love fest were viewed as crazy racists and messianic fanatics. To even suggest that not all societies wanted peace was seen as vulgar and uncouth. Nice people cried for the innocent on both sides. We could forgive the Arabs for killing our children, went one of the clichés, but not for making us kill theirs.
But then this euphoria of peace was followed by decades of barbarism — and that eroded the pity reserves of a majority of the Israeli people.
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