A great remembrance, and two questions

Submitted by Stuart Fagin (United States), Jun 5, 2018 at 12:18

A truly wonderful remembrance. It evokes in the reader deep sympathies for your loss, but also the hope that there are comforts to be had in reflecting upon a life that is both well lived and consequential in advancing democratic civilization. In reading this memorial, I thought of two questions.

First, I am struck by the similarity in (a) your father's insight that the Soviet Union can and must be defeated; that this should be the goal of US policy, rather than one of coexistence, and (b) your own insight that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict can only end with the defeat of the Palestinians; meaning a discarding of the Palestinian ambition to destroy Israel. Do you suppose that your father's view of how the US should deal with the Soviet threat influenced your view of how Israel should deal with the Palestinian threat?

Second, given that both you and your father are both foreign policy analysts (albeit, focusing on different areas), did your father have any significant disagreements with you regarding the best US policy with respect to the Muslim world?

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