The Jewish year 5777, which ended Sept. 20, will go down in the annals of Israeli history as the year of the sins. The biggest and first sin was the indecent assault on the hope of peace. Not so long ago, we Israelis used to send greeting cards ahead of the holiday, wishing our loved ones a “good new year” and adding “a year of peace.” In recent years, and more so over the past year, those wishing others a “year of peace” are considered weird at best and radical leftists at worst.

The strategic discourse about the Israeli-Arab conflict, the occupation of Palestinian territory and the Israeli settlements on those lands has made way for strident arguments for or against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara. Common refrains include such questions as, “Does one unseat a prime minister over a few takeaway food trays?” alluding to a pending indictment against Mrs. Netanyahu over allegedly abusing state funds for catered food. “Do you have anyone better than Netanyahu [to serve as prime minister]?’’ is another often-heard question.

Most Israelis, those who identify themselves as espousing views ranging from the moderate right to the center-left, say that regretfully there is no Palestinian partner for peace. Right-wing radicals say gleefully that there is no Palestinian partner with whom to make peace. The Zionist left says that sadly it appears there is no Israeli partner with whom a two-state solution can be reached. The anti-Zionist left says, with satisfaction, that there does not appear to be an Israeli partner with whom to forge a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The second sin in terms of its severity is politicians’ deceit of the public. The most blatant recent example is Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s portrayal of human rights values as contradictory to Zionist values. Shaked stated Aug. 29 that Zionism should not bow down to a system of individual rights interpreted in a universal way, yet not even one of her government colleagues bridled when she voiced this racist interpretation of the Zionist dream. After all, they had all joined over this past year in promulgating legislation and spouting incitement against human rights organizations. They cooperated in pushing through a bill that legalizes the theft of land from non-Jews in order to hand it over to Jewish ownership (by legalizing settlements constructed on private Palestinian lands). The euphemisms described to whitewash the occupation deceitfully dubbed this racist legislation the Regularization Law. The Knesset went a step further this year, excluding 20% of its citizens (Israeli-Arabs, essentially) when it promoted a bill euphemistically named the Nationality Law, which legislates Israel's status as the national home of the Jewish people, in the guise of the right to self-determination. The deceit did not spare state schools and kindergartens, where impressionable souls were taught that praying to God for rain was part of the toolbox of every Jewish farmer as he goes about his labor of tilling the land, sowing and harvesting.