10 Things That Hopefully Will Not Happen In 2008

Five serious ones:

1. Mike Bloomberg, New York City's billionaire mayor, should not run for president as an independent, not even with Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his running mate. He wouldn't win, and would only spoil it for the Democrats.
2. Iran shouldn't be attacked as long as we don't have enough information about the state of their nuclear program, but neither should Iran's word be trusted without meticulous inspections.
3. Ehud Olmert shouldn't stick around as Israel's prime minister, but neither should early elections be held, which would only result in Benjamin Netanyahu returning to office.
4. The Israeli Knesset should not continue the current trend of introducing bills mainly according to what events are in the news.
5. Meretz should not forget to return to its liberal roots and fill in the gap left by Shinui.

Five silly ones:

1. Britney Spears should not have any more babies.
2. The media should stop talking so much about Britney, her sister and their babies. The same applies to all other celebrities (yes, Israeli media, that includes Ninette Tayeb).
3. Hopefully, no Republican candidate will offer to send illegal immigrants to Iraq and Afghanistan, thus solving two problems at once.
4. After he'll drop out of the race for president, hopefully Joe Biden will not become too verbose again.
5. On Israel's 60th birthday this spring nobody should call it an old hag.

Top 10 Things That Didn't Happen in 2007

Just like Time's Person of the Year, this list comes with a "for better or for worse" attached to it. You can decide for yourselves which is for better and which is for worse. Here it is, in no particular order:

• Vice President Cheney did not invoke martial law.
• Former Vice President Al Gore did not enter the race for the presidency.
• A final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, establishing a democratic, moderate, non-hostile State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza, was not reached.
• Former President George H. W. Bush did not apologize to Americans and the whole world for how his son and namesake turned out.
• "I screwed up the war and pretty much everything else I've done since, therefore I step down", said not Ehud Olmert (nor did George W. Bush).
• Hugo Chavez did not win his bid to change Venezuela's constitution so he could remain in office all his life.
• The Israeli Knesset didn't do its job - which is to supervise the government and pass laws that make Israelis' lives better.
• Joe Biden did not talk too much.
• Iran was not attacked.
• Israel has not been nuked, nor has any other country.