Young middle class people, aware of the new standards, realize that this is a race they cannot win, a race that turns them into rats caught in a maze. In the 1960s, American students called it the rat race.

The report analyses the extent of the economic, social, military, political and diplomatic burden of the conflict on Israel. Among the report's highlights: The prolonged conflict with the Palestinians undermines sustainable economic growth, burdens the budget, limits social development, absorbs most of the energies of the political leadership, calls into question the legitimacy of the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces and isolates Israel internationally.

In this essay Israel's March of Folly, Shlomo Swirski, claims Israel's failure to seize the opportunity presented by her astounding defeat of the Arab armies in 1967 in order to continue with nation building and social and economic development, and its growing entanglement instead in the settlements project - the greatest practical obstacle in the way of peace with the Palestinians – was Israel's great folly.