Accept the cease-fire

The recent Knesset decision opposing a major IDF invasion of Gaza was not made in vain. Even if the reasons to go ahead with such plans seem justified and public support is wide, the ministers along with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak know that the chances of a large operation achieving its goals are slim.  

If IDF soldiers were to enter the crowded refugee camps, they would be forced to contend with a society that is hostile and starving under a suffocating siege that has been in place for over a year, a society that thinks that it stands nothing to lose. Beyond the hundreds of casualties that both sides would suffer, an Israeli offensive would unite Palestinian society as a whole behind Hamas and the images of Israeli tanks chasing Palestinian children will once again return to TV screens worldwide.

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A rightist government in disguise

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's speech at Harvard University on the policy of settlement expansion points more than anything to the increasing gap between the government's public stance on the matter and the reality on the ground.

If we are judging based on actions, the Israeli government - disguised as a center-left government - is in fact a rightist government that continues to build settlements, which undermines the chances of reaching a political settlement, thereby turning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into an unsolvable one. Bibi Netanyahu could not have done it better.

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Time is not on our side

At a time when the government of Israel is dragging its feet and essentially dissolving all efforts to reach a permanent agreement with the Palestinians, in international public opinion the idea of the division of the land into two states is becoming irrelevant. In its place is the vision of a bi-national state, which in practice would mean the end of Zionism.

This month, for the fourth year, 'Israel Apartheid Week' will take place in campuses across Canada, Europe and for the first time, in the US. This "week" is dedicated completely to portraying Israel as the South Africa of the 21st century. In the 'Hasbara' framework of Hillel Canada - which acts on campuses across the nation in order to promote Israel's stance and the position of the Jewish people in the student battle between Jews and non-Jews - I had the opportunity to attend Apartheid Week. I tried to pass on to the students an image of Israel other than the one associated with the conflict.

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