Why Israeli politicians choose not to call for 'peace'
The murder of Alexander Levlovich by stones thrown at his car provoked Israeli politicians into superficial statements on security, instead of prompting a public debate over ways to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Alexander Levlovitz was born in Jerusalem, where he died the night of Sept. 13, on the Jewish New Year, as he returned from his family's holiday meal. He was only 64, and when he died from a rock hurled at his car, on the very evening of the holiday that symbolizes renewal and hope, he unwittingly became a symbol of the Jewish year 5776, which only just began.
With no foreseeable end to the long conflict with the Palestinians, the Israeli public has a clear tendency to ignore anything that has to do with the powder keg it is sitting on. The last few election cycles have proven that Israelis' interest in ending the conflict, or at least trying to advance a solution, is extremely limited. Actually, since the breakdown of the conference at Camp David in October 2000, with the participation of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the former chairman of the Palestinian Authority, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, the faith of Israelis in the possibility of reaching peace with the Palestinians has gradually eroded.