Part 1: The Dream

I am a young man. My friend and I are going to spend some idle time. He’s a good friend. But we are joined by another young fellow – this one a tough guy. In my opinion, a thug. But OK.

The three of us are on a largely empty, but large, parking lot. One truck is there, with its driver in the cab. The thug and the driver get into an argument. The thug pulls a gun from his pocket and shoots the truck driver, who appears dead.

The entire truck goes up in flames. How did that happen?

The three of us are in an empty room next to the parking lot. The two others are on a video chat talking about the truck that is burning. I am appalled. We are right next to a murdered man, and one of us murdered him. I don’t want to be identified. I am not part of the chat, but I take one of those gray, plastic wastebaskets and put it over my head.

I start for home. I think about what happened. I realize I have no memory of what happened between the gunshot and the truck being on fire. Did I do anything? Would anyone believe me if I said I didn’t? Would the thug even say it was all my fault?

My life is ruined forever. I need a lawyer. A good lawyer. I go home to tell my parents. I am afraid and embarrassed. I’m not even sure how much to tell them. My parents are not home. WHERE ARE MY PARENTS WHEN I NEED THEM?

Part 2: The Reality

I am again thinking about is the return of Netanyahu as leader of the Israeli government, with new ministers who have as positions: (1) more tough police control of the 20% of Israel’s population that is Arab, (2) annexation of parts of the West Bank into Israel, (3) more support for fundamentalist Jewish religious schools, (4) allowing Haredi Jews to avoid military training or state service, and (5) no two-state solution.

Perhaps the most positive recent event in Israel has been the development and implementation of the Abraham Accords, with full diplomatic relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries, and relaxed relations with a number of others. There are those who attribute the Abraham Accords to Trump and Netanyahu. From what I can see, this attribution is 100% wrong. Here is my read: Netanyahu was talking about annexing parts of the occupied West Bank which had large Jewish settlements. Trump (and Kushner) came up with a “peace plan” which went nowhere, but would have allowed for annexation if certain preconditions were met. Trump then agreed with Netanyahu that if Israel wanted to annex parts of the West Bank at once, well before the preconditions were met, it would be fine with him.

Both panicked and seeing an opportunity, the business and political leaders of the UAE and Dubai (with silent Saudi assent) got into action, worried about the results of quick annexation. They developed the plan to allow for commercial and diplomatic relations with Israel (obviously to everyone’s advantage) in return for, among other things, Israel agreeing that annexation would be put on hold. Netanyahu agreed. But he is now pledged to break his pledge and to permit at least some expansion of Israeli’s national boundaries through annexations.

To the extent the new Netanyahu right wing government will annex Palestinian lands, clamp down on Israeli Arabs within the current State of Israel, deepen the divide between religious and non-religious Jewish Israelis, and so forth, it can only weaken Israeli relations with its partners in the Abraham Accords, with many or most Jews outside of Israel, and eventually with the American government. Perhaps, the right wing Israelis do not really care. The center and left wing minority in Israel clearly cares. The fact that the right wing is so much more powerful than the others is the overriding tragedy of Israel today.

Of course, there are those who say that these extreme positions will be modified once the new coalition takes power. But they said this about Hitler, too. And Trump. As outgoing prime minister Lapid has recently said about the new government: “This is not going to end well.”