Sternhell says that Oslo was too little too late. But the real problem was that the Left never managed to advance beyond the well-established Ashkenazi elites. It never managed to build a party that resembled the European social-democratic parties. “This is why we didn’t save Israel in time,” Sternhell tells me. “This is why I am now racked by anxiety,” he says. “Israel is my life, but I see Israel fading away. I see a terminal illness consuming the nation I so love.”
