It’s been a while since I posted a semi-personal blog post, but this short week is coming to close, and I had several encounters this week which had a common theme- a disconcerting one.  

On Monday I had my weekly radio show with Bob Harden where  I speak about Foreign Affairs. You can listen to it here.  Bob is a Trump supporter, and I have always considered him my canary in the coal mine, that when he turns, then we know that Trump is done.  So I asked him before we went live to talk about Sri Lanka, Ukraine and other items, if he had read the Mueller report, he confessed that he had not.  I volunteered that there were some severe issues covered in the report.  His response was I hope now we can get around to indicted the real criminals- the Democrats who…….  I guess the canary is very alive.

We usually agree on foreign affairs, but when we touch domestic affairs we usually disagree, but we did agree on one issue, that was reparations which seems to be the newest Democratic issue.  Something I think is very wrong and will sink the democratic party if they pursue.

That evening I was asked to appear on RT TV, that is the Russian propaganda channel.  My son does not like me appearing there, but my feeling as long as I tell the truth especially on live TV it cannot be harmful.  Last time I was on, the subject was why the Poles were not allowing the Russian to be involved in the planning of a museum at Sobibor, after all, it was a Soviet prisoner who led the revolt.  I reminded the listeners of a few points in history where the Poles have good reason to be mad at the Russians including the Katyn Forest Massacre, where the Soviets killed over 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals.  On Monday  I was again talking about issues surrounding Poland, in this case, the two incidents of anti-semitism that occurred last weekend. The first when the American Ambassador was criticized for the Jews of Poland Happy Passover, and the second when a large doll who looked like a Jew was burned and beaten.  I had no problem talking about that story, and how the “right-wing” government of Poland had made it ok to be anti-semitic again in Poland.  However as I was waiting for my segment, I was listening to the live feed from Moscow and could hear the storyline that was being told how the Mueller report was all wrong, Russia had not interfered in the elections.  

The next day I was asked to appear on i24News in the evening to discuss both the talk of the Trump Peace plan together with the idea of a naming a settlement on the Golan after President Trump.  I had to imagine what it might be like 20 years from now to live in a place named after Trump- I could not imagine that scenario.

Last night Wednesday I appear on twice on i24News first for a 30 minute segment on the Arabic Channel and then on the Run Down to talk about Boeing and the 737 Max.- Even though there are political and economic implications to the Boeing story,  it is a subject that does not affect my family or me directly as such it was safe and fun to discuss.  The Arabic conversation was the most interesting and somewhat disturbing.  There was another guest in the studio, and then a guest in Amman followed by one from Ramallah and the Palestinian Authority.  The subject was the deal of the century.  With the other guest and the guest from Amann, I had little disagreement.

In the second segment, the guest from Ramallah who was having a hard time controlling himself turned to us the guests in the studio and plaintively demanded to know what we would do if we were Palestinians and presented with a Trump peace plan that we did not like.  I broke in to answer- and I made it clear I was responding as a historian who was an American/Israeli.  I said to him what you could not do is what you did to both Barak/Clinton and then Olmert, walk away without making a counterproposal.  I said that the Palestinians had made a mistake of historical proportions by not accepting the earlier agreements.  He a moment later returned with false history, claiming that Barak/Clinton’s plan did not deal with Jerusalem or the refugees, both false. 

He then said the newest Palestinian line, that with Olmert they almost had an agreement and then came Netanyahu- so  true up to a point, but what he failed to mention was that the Palestinians did not agree to the Olmert plan if they had Livni would have run on it, and possibly Netanyahu might have lost.

What is the thread that runs through the week, I am not sure if those telling the lies believe them, but lie they all do.  It’s sad!