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Israel Looks Inward
(Al-Monitor) Einat Wilf - The recent Israeli elections were not about peace, and had very little to say on the matter. To borrow the American term, Israelis have chosen to focus on "nation-building at home." Israelis made a rational choice. They took a look around them - at the Arab world, at the West Bank - and realized that they are not likely to face any major policy choices on these fronts anytime soon. They understood that the Arab world will be overwhelmed by its own problems for years to come. The Arabs in the West Bank, while continuing to detest Israel's control over them, are still unable to make the difficult choices that would yield an agreement that would end this control. Israelis reminded themselves that while the conflict with the Arab world has been raging for more than a century, it has never stopped them in the past from building their society, culture and economy. The fact that there might be no immediate solution to the conflict with the Arab world does not mean that they have to put their lives as a people and a country on hold. In the absence of a realistic chance of achieving peace, the rational course for a productive and dynamic people is to turn their energies elsewhere. The writer is a former Member of the Knesset.