Na va-nad

Before it was called World War One, WWI was called in French “la der des ders”, in English “The War To End All Wars”.

Here in Israel, there is still a prevalent thought that another road, another lane, another interchange or another tunnel will “put an end to all congestion (forever)”. Road 6 was supposed to be the ultimate solution for the whole country: “The Road to End All Congestion”. Instead, apart from being an eyesore and a terrible environmental scar, it is itself congested every day: it turns out, to no serious person’s surprise, that by leading people to believe they can reside wherever they want and rely on a fast commute on Road 6 to wherever they need to be for work, to visit family or for entertainment, you create the conditions for no one to be able to do that.

Well, I’m starting to see a parallel here with Israel’s wars. Each one was supposed to be the end to Hamas aggression from Gaza, to Hezbollah’s rockets and threat at the northern border, to terror in the West Bank, to Iran’s ballistic missile threat… and then we need another one to achieve the same goal again – doesn’t that sound familiar?

I wish the prospects for the future of regional geopolitics were more like building high-speed train lines, mass transit and livable cities and less like building Road 6.

To be honest, in terms of transportation, the transition is not complete but I can see high levels of the technocratic state have understood the need for proper mass transit and livable cities. So now we need to send Netanyahu home and have a new government which tasks itself with bringing us a sustainable future.