The “Lessons of War” Edition

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. No ‘Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’? Journalist and best-selling author Matti Friedman argues in the New York Times that if you think of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians “as a problem that can be solved by an agreement between them,” then you don’t understand it. 1,364 Dead Terrorists Former IDF Chief of Staff and present candidate for Prime Minister Benny Gans boasts in his campaign videos of killing 1,364 terrorists and destroying whole city blocks in the Gaza war in 2014. Do body-counts have a place in political campaigns? Morriskeit Historian Benny Morris, on his retirement from teaching, predicts that in a generation’s time, Jews will become a persecuted minority in Palestine, because Palestinians will never accept a Jewish state on this embattled land. Morris is a scholar’s scholar, but also a long-time and lugubrious melancholic. What should we make of his dismal prediction? Extra Segment Michelle Alexander argues in the Times that, were he alive today, MLK would be all in on BDS. We ask, WTF? Music The happy energy of Moshe Peretz Yesh li Otakh (יש לי אותך) Sukar ba-Café (סוכר בקפה) Hakol Itakh Dvash (הכל איתך דבש) Hainu Shnaim (חיינו שניים), with Nasrin Kadrin