Ask A Genius 900: Canadian and American Politics
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/02/12
[Recording Start]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, I wanted to make a point about comparing Canadian and American politics. A recent thing arose that I think is essential with a woman named Selena Robinson; she’s the minister of postsecondary education and future skills of British Columbia. She made an insensitive, according to many, comment about Israel and Gaza, and she gave an apology on Twitter shortly after that. This was five hours ago. She says, “I want to apologize for my disrespectful comment referring to the origins of Israel on a “crappy piece of land,” I was referring to the fact that the land has limited natural resources. I understand that this flipping comment has caused pain and that it diminishes the connection Palestinians also have to the land. I regret what I said, and I apologize for that reservation.”
Rick Rosner: All right. So, she shouldn’t be forced to resign, and I don’t know what would happen in America depending on what side she’s on politically and who decides to go after her. Crappy is not an inappropriate term, at the very least. Israel’s land is less than ideal because it’s small and coveted by more than one group of people. Historically, a lot of the land the Palestinians are on has been used for olive groves, and I don’t know what kind of land is suitable for growing olives, whether it’s depleted or pleasant land; I assume it’s not that nice. Israel, in the Bible, I think, is called the land of milk and honey. So, maybe it’s nicely situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, but that doesn’t seem to be a wildly insensitive comment. If some people want to go after her and if she wants to apologize, that should be it. Her comment probably reflects at least a little historical knowledge about Israel. So, there you go.
I got my teeth cleaned today, and my dentist came in; I think he has dual citizenship between the US and Israel, and he asked me what I thought, and I said I’m not qualified to have thoughts because I don’t know anything. Then I told him my thoughts, and he gave me more information. I said that I think Netanyahu needs to go when the war is over, and he said that he’s done. I don’t know precisely when he became a citizen. I think he started with just an American citizenship, but he spent a lot of time over there. He doesn’t like Netanyahu either; most Israelis don’t. I mean, the war has to be prosecuted against Hamas. Still, it is also a way for Netanyahu to stay in power because once the war is over, given his negligence that allowed the Hamas attack that set off the war, plus his just being like a dick, he’ll be kicked out of office.
He said, now I don’t know. I asked what was going on in the West Bank, which is on the east side of Israel on the West Bank of the Jordan River, with the right-wing extremist settlers abusing the Palestinians whose land it’s supposed to be. I don’t know what political point of view he’s expressing, but he said that 90% of the Jewish settlers on the West Bank are decent people and that it’s 10% of belligerent killy- people that are the problem. Netanyahu, he said, and I think this is well established, Netanyahu has like fascist criminals super right-wing criminals in his cabinet and supporting them and supporting their efforts to let the extremists on the West Bank get away with whatever may have been, I think he said this because it was a lot of information and just a few minutes, that distraction may have been what let Hamas develop their plans for a massive attack in more or less plain sight.
[Recording End]
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