Happy New Year, everyone. I begin 2013 by reaffirming my point that the right-wing, one-state forces in Israel are taking leadership to frame the conversation in a post-Oslo world. Now it is Naftali Bennett and his HaBayit HaYehudi party leading the way. Bennett, though a zealous nationalist and an orthodox Jew, presents a much more reasonable face which he puts on his outrageous plan for endless occupation and permanent apartheid. And, while we can critique his ideas, we need also to recognize that this sort of thinking is making its way into the political arena–it’s in Israel now, which means it will soon be in Congress and parts of the European right. An alternative needs to be developed and politicized; peace activists need to stop wasting time in the misguided effort to raise Oslo from the dead.
