There is a sense among the public of depression, powerlessness, and even despair over the situation. Indeed, we are undergoing a monstrous wave of terror, unprecedented in its atrocity, but still this sense is unjustified.

The public, it appears, suffers from a sort of manic depression when it comes to events. In the Oslo years we held hedonistic festivities to mark the end of the era of war, and it was precisely then that there was cause for deep concern, because of the deception regarding our true relations with the Palestinians and Arabs. We so much wanted peace and stability in the region that we ignored all the signs that heralded trouble. Today the situation is the opposite: deep depression, personal and collective, when there are in fact signs that herald good.

Israel is one of the 25 richest nations on earth, with a GNP of USD 114 billion a year, the same as all the neighboring Arab states combined (the PA’s annual GNP is USD 2.5 billion, of Jordan USD 9 billion, of Lebanon 18 billion and of Egypt 83 billion). Per capita, we have already passed Greece, Portugal, Spain, and we are not far from Italy, France and Britain. The Israeli economy is strong despite everything. True, there is unemployment and the economic situation is difficult but even in these days, there is no capital fleeing Israel, according to Governor of the Bank of Israel David Klein. The future is Israel’s: except for the United States, Israel tops the world’s nations when it comes to hi-tech innovation and Internet startups, a branch that is likely to again prosper soon.

If we fear an all-out war, there is no Arab regime in the entire Middle East that wants to go to war against Israel, not even Iraq. No Arab country can afford to fund such a war, because they are all sunk in great economic distress. Many in the region realize that the Palestinian disturbances are not just an Israeli problem, but rather of all them: there is no tourism, no work, no foreign investment. In contrast to the impression in the world media, the Islamic movements are in decline in the Arab world, because their message is viewed more and more as illusions for the masses.

The Palestinian Intifada has brought to Israel social solidarity that we have not had for years. Not that our differences have been solved, but there is deep sense of a shared fate that prevents further polarization. Not that we should not protest against a weak government that cannot find its way, but today it is clear to everyone which lines should not be crossed in social relations. Thus, if there those among the Arabs who hoped to disintegrate Israeli society, the results were the reverse.

The separation fence, which will ultimately be built, will safeguard Israel in the future from a demographic aspect and will maintain its identity as a strong Jewish state. It will prevent, unlike what occurred in the Oslo years, our being deluged by Palestinians, infiltrators from the Third Word into the First World, coming to work, to live and to become citizens.

And finally, experience teaches us that no Arab ruler has ever reached a serious agreement with Israel unless he had no other choice. So it was with Sadat when Egypt could not provide bread to the masses, with Arafat after the Gulf War, with Hussein after Oslo and with Bashir Jumayel in the Lebanese civil war. This is likely to happen now, too. The Oslo process did not get the sides to truly know each other. Perhaps this blood bath will in fact get the Palestinians, as well as the Israelis, to realize that they have no other choice but to recognize the other side’s rights, on the way to rapprochement and quiet.

This article ran in the March 7th issue of Yediot Aharonot

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