It takes a certain kind of audacity or disconnectedness, or perhaps both, to try and write something hopeful for 2025. A sober and realistic assessment of the political forces in Israel-Palestine, the wider region, and the world as a whole does not elicit much optimism that the ongoing catastrophe of the past 15 months — particularly what Palestinians are enduring in Gaza — may soon come to an end.
Israel’s far-right government enjoys a solid majority in the Knesset and appears to be committed to carrying out the second and third clauses in Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s “Decisive Plan” in Gaza: the expulsion of the Palestinians or their elimination by the sword if they refuse to leave. (The first clause, to allow Palestinians to live quietly and peacefully under conditions of apartheid, is by now considered too humane and liberal by this government and its supporters.) ….more
