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And it was only a statement. Sometimes it seems as if the Arabs understand the emotional aspect of the peace process better than we do. Arafat avoids details and refuses even to remember them. When you watch him you realize how much he is influenced by emotions. In general, great leaders are motivated and guided by emotion: Ben-Gurion, Begin, Sadat, Churchill, Lenin, and others. Sadat, for instance, asked Begin to withdraw from Al-Arish before the designated time as a gesture for his daughter’s wedding, but was refused, because of our entrenchment in our fears and the suspicion, voiced quietly at the time, that the Arabs always want bakshish (money that is given under the table) and do not know how to keep agreements.

It is also true that you cannot build a good relationship if you are over-preoccupied with details. On the contrary, such a preoccupation invites more and more wars. The therapist will try to be empathetic with the patient’s emotional suffering 19 20 • Israel on the Couch and to give her the stage in order to create a corrective experience. Only then can the patient relax and put aside the details and tactics. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got overly involved in the minute details and led us to a dead end.

But both sides will need some time to find our inner truths out of the tangle of emotions that flood us. Our inner truth is, for now, that we will not give in on the matter of terrorism, but if they 30 • Israel on the Couch prove themselves, we will give them independence. In every growth process, closing gaps between inner and outer worlds, and reconciling with reality, lead to closing gaps in one’s inner world and mending rifts and splits. Today there is no significant gap between the positions of the left and the right regarding what to concede and what not to, and time will continue closing that gap and leading to the point I am talking about, our emotional truth as a nation.