The election is over. Let’s all get a fresh start here.
I’ll go first. My main posts are analysis based on experience and research. In return, I expect some respect. I welcome serious discussion and disagreement. I will no longer tolerate dismissal, derision, defamation, name-calling, or response to serious posts with icons like a laughing face.
Why do I expect anything? Here’s a very partial list of the things I’ve done, actually done—not watched on TV from my armchair:
· Covered every Israeli election since 1974 and two American elections before that.
· Met every Israeli prime minister since Golda Meir for formal and informal interviews, most of them many times.
· Spent a night in a Palestinian refugee camp.
· Lived in Cairo for two years covering the Arab Spring (my first book)
· Reported from Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.
· Had a friendly chat with the Crown Prince of Jordan at his palace.
· Teargassed and knocked down by Israeli police while reporting.
· Spent at least one day a week in the Knesset, part of an informal group that ran the stairs instead of riding the elevators.
· On a first-name basis with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
· Did simultaneous translation of important Hebrew speeches as editor at AP Jerusalem.
· Covered trials and hearings in Israeli courts up to the Supreme Court.
There’s lots more. It’s in my second book, “Why Are We Still Afraid?”
So when I post, it’s usually analysis, never ideology, hate, or what-aboutism. Of course there’s room for jokes, family pictures, and kittens, too. All I ask is that you respond in kind. If you can’t or don’t want to do that, feel free to unfriend me. Or you can go ahead and respond derisively, and I’ll save you the trouble.