Mishpacha’s experts predict the year ahead
ON Erev Rosh Hashanah 5784, predictions in Israel for the coming year ranged from a Netanyahu plea deal to a Biden-mediated peace agreement with Saudi Arabia. At the beginning of the secular new year three months later, all those forecasts can be discarded, along with the intelligence assessments of the Military Intelligence Directorate, the Shin Bet, and the Mossad.
One thing can be said with certainty: The Israel we knew in 2023 and the Israel of 2024 will look like two completely different countries. The legal reform that consumed the country for nearly a year has disappeared, with the extremes on both sides retroactively accusing each other of weakening Israeli society and opening the gates to Hamas’s murderous onslaught.
The big question of what Israel will look like isn’t just about politics. First and foremost, it concerns the foundations of a society that is changing its face. Even now, as the fighting continues, the Israeli public can be divided into three blocs. The first, the extreme right, blames the left for the collapse of Israel’s deterrence, and is setting unachievable goals like the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in Gaza.
On the other hand, many former members of the protest movement on the left, some of whom have become spokespeople for the families of the abductees, cynically accuse the government and its supporters of being responsible for the horrific Simchas Torah massacre.
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