cautious optimism

"The country is better off because we have stopped lying. We are learning, slowly, to tell one another the painful truths."

Yair Lapid -- actor, talk-show host, columnist-intellectual -- last week published this article that pretty much sums up my cautiously optimistic view of The Situation.

The thing that terrifies me most about the current climate is my fear for our democracy, represented by the Knesset and symbolized by the Prime Minister himself. When Rabin was killed, democracy got a critical kick to the gut, and I felt that pain. We all have, for the past decade. In this climate, there is a very real fear that that could happen again and, while Israel would undoubtedly survive it, recovery would take a very very long time.

I like to think that our democracy is getting stronger (while that of the U.S. appears to be weakening dangerously) and Yair has articulated that perspective well.