Russ Roberts: belief

Transcript context

…There’s an expression from the Talumd, “to answer something on one foot,” because you can’t stand on one foot for very long. For some people it means you get 30 seconds. There’s some baseball pitchers who could probably stand on one foot for an hour or two, but it usually means — you want me to answer this on one foot. Of course, there’s no answer. I mentioned Micah Goodman a minute ago for his book, The Wondering Jew. He has another fascinating book called Catch-67, which explores the contradictions and inconsistencies with different worldviews toward the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in an incredibly thoughtful way. I recommend that book. It’s the best book you can read about what’s going on here politically and intellectually and emotionally. It’s a phenomenal book. Even though part of his insight is it’s wrong to look for a solution — if I remember the book correctly; I read it quickly — but think about ways to live with it. Think about ways to make life better. Think about ways to move toward improvement rather than fixing it. I think the American foreign policy establishment has spent the last decades just trying to fix it. It may not be fixable. It’s hard to admit that as a rational person. It’s hard to admit it as a person who lives here. By the way, I should just mention, people have hurt me in the last month saying, “Is it scary here? Would you be afraid to raise your children there if you had young children?” It’s an incredible place to raise children. Children here run free without fear. They play in a way that American children used to be allowed to play. I played that way growing up; it’s still true here. There’s very little crime on the streets, very little street crime, very little theft, very little burglary and so on. There’s the threat of terrorism. You’re much more likely to get stabbed in Jerusalem than you are in New York City. Of course, it’s not common, thank God, at least of right now, but it’s serious. Then you got Iran. As I alluded to earlier, it’s a tough neighborhood. I think it behooves — if I may use a word that’s out of fashion — it behooves us all to think about ways to both reduce the security threat to Israel, and to improve the lives of the people who, of course in the West Bank, in Gaza and elsewhere, who — they’re not very good democracies, even though sometimes there are elections. I don’t necessarily believe that the person on the street there is being — I don’t know what their attitudes are. They can’t give an honest answer, out of fear, so I wouldn’t rely on survey data. I think there’s certainly a lot of people in those parts of the world — our neighbors here, our cousins, just want to lead a normal life and have a better life for their children, like most people aspire to. How do you improve that? I would love to have more commercial interaction, although I agree with you that trade is not a panacea. Or does that mean it is a panacea? I can’t remember; I have trouble with that word. prove that? I would love to have more commercial interaction, although I agree with you that trade is not a panacea. Or does that mean it is a panacea? I can’t remember; I have trouble with that word. I think there used to be more commercial interaction between the Palestinian population and Israel because it was more peaceful. Now that the threat of terrorism is aired, Israel’s rolled off its borders to those neighborhoods and those parts of the world, to Gaza, because it’s scary. That’s tragedy. They live horribly there. It’s a very tough place to live, Gaza. Egypt’s not very nice to them either, by the way. They have a closed border with Egypt. I think the challenge is to find ways — the real problem right now is that Israel doesn’t have a negotiating partner who thinks that Israel has a right to exist, so Hamas doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to exist. It’s hard to imagine a two-state solution with that. How do you improve things along the way? I think you look for ways to do some commercial interaction. I think the other thing reminds me a little bit of — I’ll say it this way. This is the Middle East. There are cultural norms here that are not the same as in America. I think a lot of Americans have no understanding of that. Certainly American Jews don’t. I don’t think American negotiators understand it so well, probably, the role that pride, face, dignity plays — as opposed to, say, narrow self-interest, narrowly defined. I think it’s much greater for those other intangible things. Personally, I’d like to see Israel try a different move toward normalcy. I also understand that I’m naïve and have only lived here six months, and have very little thoughtful to say about that that I would want anyone to pay attention to, because it’s a different neighborhood than where I came from in Maryland. It’s not easily understood. What might be seen as a generous gesture in Maryland might be seen differently here, and vice versa. Something that’s harsh in Maryland might be seen very differently here. Israelis have their own cultural baggage, not just that they’re part of this Middle Eastern culture, that they share to some extent with their neighbors. Israelis are very proud of their self-reliance. I’ll tell you a story. I once — again, I’ve only been here six months, but this is an old story; it tells you something. I’m flying out of JFK. I have to get to Israel to visit one of my kids who’s studying here for the year, this special program for the parents. It’s a small window for me to get here in time to enjoy the program with my son. JFK, every flight’s cancelled, it’s snowing, just this relentless hour after hour blanketing the city. I leave midtown Manhattan to go to JFK. My flight on El Al, the Israeli airline, is still not cancelled somehow, but the cab can’t go faster than 20 miles an hour. There’s no one on the road. Our cab’s the only car on the road. Takes us about 45 minutes or an hour to get to JFK at 20 miles an hour. I get to the desk to check my bags. They asked me the security questions, which El Al does differently than anybody else. They take my bag. out 45 minutes or an hour to get to JFK at 20 miles an hour. I get to the desk to check my bags. They asked me the security questions, which El Al does differently than anybody else. They take my bag. I get to the front desk to get my boarding pass, and they say, “Can I help you?” I said, “Yes, I’m on flight such and such.” I said, “We’re not leaving tonight, are we? We’re not really going to fly in this? This flight’s going to be canceled, isn’t it? I’m two hours early, and it’s still going to keep snowing the whole time.” She looks at me and she says, “Our pilots, they’re all from the Israeli Air Force. The rule here is it’s the pilot’s call. They can decide they’re uncomfortable flying and cancel a flight at any time.” She said, “As long as the airport’s open, we’re going to fly, because those pilots, they’re going to fly. They’re confident that they can fly through that storm.” There’s something beautiful about that. Something scary. [chuckles] I was really excited because I wanted to get to see my son, but just thinking, “I don’t know if that’s always my mentality.” That’s the Israeli mentality. “We’ll get it done. We’ll take care of it. It’ll work out.” We’re joking a lot. Not joking, but we’re talking around these issues of bluntness and this culture here, but there’s a vitality and national pride here that’s so missing in America these days. I’m very worried about the future of America. It’s a different set of worries here, but they’re not bad worries relative to what America’s dealing with, it feels like. Are you optimistic about the future of America as a country?…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.