Do You Want to Understand the Middle East? | Sunday Fireside Chat

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Hi everybody, welcome to the fireside chat, which is a little different than usual. I'm Dennis Prager. This is Otto, my man. Well, my dog. I don't confuse humans and dogs, but I love the guy. And this is different because on a few occasions a year, I have a guest on the fireside chat. Normally it is just you and me, and I think that's a wonderful thing. And, and thank God a lot of you think that way too. But sometimes somebody special comes in to Los Angeles. This is my home and comes to my home because I want to talk to them and learn from them. And dialogue with them, and such is the case here. Bassem Eid, EID, is the man in this case. He is a Palestinian, lives in the Palestinian territories and in Jericho, and he blogs for the Times of Israel. And let me just say this about him because I will. I'll have him say more so you get a better idea of who he is and why he is with me. He has the greatest of all the good traits. There are many good traits: honesty, integrity, loyalty. Kindness, compassion, but the best is courage. Because without courage, the others are largely useless. And he has courage. He's an outspoken Palestinian about a lot of the human rights abuses in the Palestinian arena. He obviously cares about other human rights abuses as well, but there are very few critics within that world. Not nearly as many as within, for example, Israel about Israel. I think that's true. I'll have him answer. In any event, first of all, welcome to my home, Bassem.

Thank you. It's a pleasure.

Thank you so much. We noted, by the way, earlier that one of our dogs who usually— Snoopy, who usually gets very agitated when a man that he does not know comes to the door, Immediately liked you. That is a very good sign, Bassem.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. Thank you.

So again, it is a pleasure. Okay, so tell us a little more about you. You were, you were born where?

Yeah, I born in the Old City of Jerusalem and specifically in an area called the Jewish Quarter.

Oh, how interesting.

Yeah.

So you're a Palestinian born in the Jewish Quarter. By the way, I meant to ask you, and it's because Palestinians, most Palestinians Some of your guests are from a Muslim family. Some are Christian. What are you?

I am a Muslim.

You're from— okay. If I may ask, and you don't have to answer every question, but are you a practicing Muslim?

No.

Right.

I am anti-religious person.

Anti-religious?

Yes.

Okay. I'm pro-religious, but I still love you. And I'm not joking. I'm not joking because I judge— I don't judge people by their faith. I judge them by their behavior. And you're a wonderful human being.

Yeah.

So I just— that's important.

Yeah.

So were you raised religious?

No.

Oh, interesting. So you came from a secular home?

Exactly.

Okay. So you were born in the Jewish Quarter of what was then under Jordanian control?

Exactly.

Okay. So you are now living where?

In Jericho.

Right. And you have a family?

Yes, 4 children.

4 children.

2 boys, 2 girls.

Oh, you hit the jackpot, as we say in America. Right. And none of them send postcards. None of them call. That's the joke we tell.

But the most, the most interesting story here.

Yeah.

Between the Jewish Quarter and Jericho, that in 1966, specifically in June '66, means exactly one year before the '67 war,

right?

The Jordanian government decided to evacuate 500 Palestinian families from the Jewish Quarter and to transfer them to north of Jerusalem in an area called Shafa'at refugee camp.

Why?

That's a big question. Neither an Israeli nor a Palestinian, even not a Jordanian, succeed right now to give an explanation why the Jordanian government,

right,

decided so. So we moved in June '66 to Shuafat refugee camp.

You didn't want to.

Where I grew up for 33 years.

Oh my God.

So who made me a refugee

Right.

Is the Jordanians, not the Israelis, by the way.

Okay, let me just explain for those of you watching, because I don't expect everybody to know their history, unfortunately, because most people go to an American school and learn very little. So, in a nutshell, Jordan controlled the West Bank of Jordan until 1967, after it invaded Israel and lost that territory in the Six-Day War or the June '67 War. Then Israel got control of it. It still has control control of it to this day. It's part of what is called the West Bank, but it was under Jordanian rule from '48, from '48 to '67.

Yeah.

And that's, that's what— and then Jordan lost it, as I said, in, in that war. Okay. So if you would have been asked in 1960, if you, if you were, I, I, if you were old enough even to have been asked the question—

I was 2 years old.

So, okay, then it wouldn't count. Had you been asked in '60— so '66, we'll go right before the war.

Yeah.

What are you nationally? What would you have answered? What would your parents have answered?

I remember when they asked me at the school on the first year of the school, when I went to school, the teacher started asking, you know, each of the students there. What is your nationality? Some people used to say Palestinians, and they were beaten by the teacher in that time by saying, from where you brought this word? Really? You are Jordanian.

Wow.

Who is ruling your, your life here?

That's why I asked the question.

Jordan or any other country?

Right.

So we used to be beaten if we, if we are saying Palestinian.

And what would your parents have said?

My parents used to say Palestinians.

They did?

Yes. But in the official, let's say, or— Right.

They'd say Jordanian.

You must have to say Jordanian.

What would a Palestinian— most Jordanians, to make things even more confusing for you, my viewer, most Jordanians are Palestinians, correct?

Right. Let's say it probably till 2003. But right now in Jordan, you have more Iraqis after the war.

Really?

Than Syrians and Palestinians.

That I did not know.

Yes. Yes. There was a survey. There was a census in Jordan, I think last year.

Yeah.

And they found that the Arab refugees from Iraq and Syria are double than the number of the Palestinians. So we became a minority, the minority in Jordan right now.

Okay, so, but my question would still hold. What would a Palestinian in Jordan say he is, Jordanian or Palestinian?

See, they used to say Jordanian, they used to say Palestinians, but in the official documents, right, they mentioned Jordanians.

And between themselves in discussion, what would they say?

Go that far. Let us take the Israeli Arabs who are holding the Israeli citizenship. Correct, correct. What they are calling themselves? What do they call Palestinians?

Uh huh. But that began after 67, didn't it?

Yes.

Right. Until then, they called themselves Arabs.

Right. Israeli Arabs.

Israeli Arabs. Right. So the term Israeli Arab is is not used much now among Israeli Arabs.

I think who gave us the privilege. To call ourselves Palestinians. Yeah. Are they Israelis?

Now, if you're not confused by now, you're good. But not that it's not clear. It is. But it is mind-bogglingly confusing. So an Israeli Palestinian, is that what— is that if he went to London and, sir, and you are, he would say an Israeli Palestinian or just Palestinian?

Just Palestinian.

That's what I thought.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

All right.

Because— Does he think— 2 different nationalities.

Correct. Compared to 25 years ago, are Palestinians less or more Israeli?

Less, let's say.

That's what I was afraid of.

Yes, less.

See, that's—

Because I can see, you know, that the behavior, let's say, of the 2 million Israeli Arabs inside Israel, living inside Israel, holding the Israeli citizenship, now more and more they are calling themselves Palestinians rather than Israelis.

And how do you explain that?

See, I think that the Israeli Arabs inside Israel has their own problems. And I'm looking to these people as people who are living under a kind of a shattered identity. They don't know exactly what is their real identity, if it is Israeli or it is a Palestinian or it is an Arab. Sometimes they are behaving like an Israeli and they introduce themselves as an Israeli, but sometimes also the opposite,

right? Right.

They claim, they claim that they are Palestinians and they are not connected at all to Israel.

If there were a vote with the among the two million Palestinian Israelis or Israeli Palestinians, should Israel cease to exist as a Jewish state? How would they vote

against

against the Jewish state?

Yes, because that's exactly the the the the political agenda of the Israeli Arabs members of Knesset.

Right.

Is that Israel is the state of its own citizens.

Right. Not a Jewish state.

Exactly.

This might be the only case in the world of members of a parliament who are opposed to the existence of the state of that parliament.

Which they are, which they are the citizens of the same state.

Yes.

Yes, I agree. I agree. It's, there is a huge confusion here.

It's sad though. It doesn't make one optimistic.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I agree.

What is your view with regard to Israel as a Jewish state?

See, I have no problem that Israel can call itself whatever it wants. That's not my matter. This is not my business. Let Israel call itself whatever it wants. That shouldn't, shouldn't, let's say, face By any, any kind of boycott or divestment or sanction. Should it? Israel has the full right. As Israel has the full right to exist, Israel still has the full right to call itself whatever it wants. This is my opinion.

You don't represent most Palestinians.

Unfortunately not. Unfortunately not. especially the Palestinian leadership. I think that the problem of Israel right now is much more with its own Arab citizens rather than with the Palestinians towards the issue of the, of the Jewish state. The real fight right now is inside Israel. It's not outside Israel.

It's really a parallel to America. I think that, for example, I think Black Americans feel less American today, generally speaking, there are many exceptions, than 25 years ago. I think they feel more Black than American. I think Palestinian Israelis feel more Palestinian than Israeli than 25 years ago.

Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. And they, you know, when you come to the Israeli Arabs and asking them, Why that's happened? Then people start complaining. Then people start complaining. You know, the Israeli Arabs, as an example, never ever used the term of considering Israel as apartheid. It just recently. It's never happened during the '60s or the '70s or the '80s even. Just recently. Why that's happened? Looks like that there is an internal, internal problems inside Israel.

Right.

And I don't want to talk about the recent, you know, a fight inside the joint cities in Israel during the fight between Israel and the Hamas in Gaza. It's unbelievable what's happening inside Israel. I think that that's probably the only thing That Hamas succeed on, that they really destroyed the coexistence which took the Israelis and the Arabs over then 73 years to build it. They succeed to destroy it within 10 days.

That is very— that might have been the reason for the war. They knew they can't defeat Israel.

Unfortunately.

Yes, but if they can Get the Arab Israeli to feel less Israeli or even anti-Israeli, then they won.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Well,

yeah, that's the point.

What can Israel do?

See, I don't know that Israel can do that much, but let us hope, let us hope. That during the new government and the coalition that Naftali Bennett succeeded to build with an Israeli Arab political party, Ra'am, and Abbas Mansour— and Mansour Abbas— I hope that that will a little bit improve, let's say, the coexistence Between the Israelis and the Israeli Arabs.

If I were to ask the average Israeli Palestinian, Israeli Arab, whatever term you use, do you think you have it better in Israel than you would in almost any Arab country? Of course. What would they say?

Oh, 100% would say yes. 100% will agree with that. No doubt about that. Everybody knows inside Israel that his level of life is much better than—

And his freedom.

Of course, of course, of course. Yeah. Look to the Arabs in Syria. Look to the Palestinians in Syria. Look to the Palestinians in Lebanon. Right. Look to the Palestinians in Yemen. Look to the Palestinians in Iraq. You couldn't understand what's really going on. I used to say, Dennis, that if we are looking to the Middle East map and how the Islamic terror is increasing, we will find that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is probably the most safe place in the Middle East. As an Arab, as a Muslim, I don't want to be in Syria. I don't want to be in Iraq. I don't want to be in Yemen. It's much more safe for myself And for my children to continue living under the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Right. Including safer in occupied West Bank.

I think.

Because if Israel left, you would end up with a Hamas-like West Bank.

Oh, that would be horrible.

Yes.

I don't think that the West Bank wishes the same future of Gaza right now.

So exactly, exactly. So I feel, I don't know if you know this phrase, in America we say, I've now entered the Twilight Zone. I have entered a strange place where these 100%, you said, of Israeli Arabs would say, we have it better than any other Arab in the world.

Right.

And yet we want Israel basically destroyed.

Yeah, this is, you know, Sometimes, let's say, people are speaking from 2 different faces, unfortunately, and each time they are looking, you know, which face is more comfortable for this question and which face is more comfortable for that question. It depends with whom they are talking. It depends which kind of question you are asking, but people from their hearts secretly knows that their life in Israel much better than it is under any other Arab country around.

Right, but you have even added a point that nobody in the West even would even consider. It's better on the West Bank In the Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation than if Israel left.

Of course.

Of course. You say it.

It is much, much safer.

Much safer and freer.

You know, you know, I used to ask my, my friends sometimes in the refugee camps, imagine that tomorrow morning you will wake up and you will find that no Israeli exists in the West Bank. What you will do?

Right.

They said we will go out and try to search where they are to bring them back. You know, it is like friends in Gaza. Sometimes when I talk to them, yeah, they ask me, Bassam, can you describe to us how the Jewish people looks like? We miss them.

Oh God. Oh my God.

Listen, it is horrible. I think that after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Gaza became a real hell.

Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. I used to say, Dennis, that there are 2 big historical mistakes that Israeli leaders committed since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Yeah,

the first mistake committed by Menachem Begin in 1977, When he signed the peace accord with Egypt without returning back all of Gaza to Egypt. We took it from you. Please take it back. Otherwise, I will never sign any peace accord with you.

Oh, that was the first mistake.

The second mistake was made by Ariel Sharon when he decided in 2005 just to leave Gaza. And to get out.

Right. What should he have done?

Oh, look what's going on.

No, we know. So he should not have left.

Exactly.

So again, let me explain to all of you. In 1967, Israel, in the, in the war that they, they really had to fight or they would have been destroyed, it was against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and they conquered Egyptian territory, the Sinai Peninsula, and this little piece of land known as the Gaza Strip. That's why it's called a strip. It's alongside the Mediterranean, tucked into the Sinai Peninsula. That is a very original thought I had never thought of. Why didn't— so let me begin by saying, so the Egyptians said, we don't want Gaza.

Yes.

And the Israelis said, okay, you don't have to have Gaza.

We will keep it.

Well, yeah, we will keep it, in effect. That's right. Big boo-boo. That's right. I understand that. Well, let us say, I mean, we don't know the answer. Let us say Begin, the Israeli prime minister, said to Sadat, the Egyptian president, no deal if you don't take back Gaza. Would he have taken it?

Probably yes.

That's what I think.

Probably yes.

But he, Sadat was smart. He knew what trouble the Gaza would be.

Yes. And he preferred to leave this trouble for Israel to deal with. Exactly, yes.

Since you like beehives and hornet nests, enjoy them. That's exactly right.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh God, the world in which we live. My God. So your work, you do this blog for the Times of Israel as a Palestinian, and you also do human rights work within and civil rights work within the Palestinian world. Can you tell me about that?

I founded in 1996 the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring group to deal directly with the violations committed by the Palestinian Authority and its security services against the Palestinian civilians. 4 months after I established the organization, I was arrested by Yasser Arafat.

I'm surprised it took 4 months.

But I was so lucky that I kept in jail for, for 25 hours only.

Yeah, that's lucky.

And the only one who involved directly in my release was the former U.S. Secretary Warren Christopher under Bill Clinton administration.

Interesting.

I don't know Warren Christopher at all. I never met with him.

Right.

But he received an urgent message from the Human Rights Watch in New York that you must have to be involved in releasing him. And according to Human Rights Watch, he picked up the telephone, he talked to Arafat, he gave Arafat 5 minutes to release me, and I was released. And that detention, by the way, serves me right now as a kind of impunity.

Oh, not to be arrested again.

Imagine that I am living in Jericho, man.

Oh, that's right.

I'm amazed.

I'm amazed. I hate to say that, truly hate to. I'm amazed you're not in jail and I'm amazed you haven't been shot.

Right, right.

Why haven't you been shot? I must admit, I've never asked anybody that question.

I paid a very high price in my life. First of all, I spent 26 years defending the rights of the Palestinians, if it is from the Israeli army or it is from the Palestinian security forces. In the meantime, I received several international awards. In I I became a media man. I'm well known around the world. I almost visited over than ninety-three countries around the world talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So for the Palestinian Authority, you became an international character.

Oh, so you're protected.

Yes, and that's really—

you're too well known.

Exactly, exactly. Oh,

I'm happy. Thank God to hear that. We have a— we have questions always. So you— we've touched on this, but I'd still like to take our weekly question, and we'll find out from whom.

Yeah.

Hi, Dennis and Basim. My name is Tierna. I'm 17, and I'm from Los Angeles, California. And my question is, what does the future hold for peace in the Middle East given the recent

Okay, there you go. So that's, of course, the larger question of our whole discussion.

Unfortunately, I am a person who is considering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an unsolvable conflict.

You know, I just want to say, I respected you before you came, and I, you've just doubled it. People are not mature enough, I think, to acknowledge when there aren't solutions. It's a, if the issue is not even, in this case, you have, you're, I mentioned your courage, but in this instance, this is just maturity. Be real. There is no solution at this time. That's exactly right.

I want to drive the lady who asked the question even more crazy.

Okay.

By saying that sometimes it looks like to me that the Palestinian leadership, if it is the Hamas in Gaza or the PA in the West Bank, they are against the 2-state solution for 2 people. They are completely against. What they are in favor of is a 3-state solution for 2 people. Because the Hamas right now building its own Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip.

Uh-huh.

Abbas is building his own empire in the West Bank and the State of Israel. This is how we are living in the past 12 years. And looks like that everybody is so satisfied with his own.

Are the people—

This is the solution.

That's fascinating. Yes, exactly.

This is the solution. Right. What can I tell you about—

All I know is, now tell me if I'm wrong. I have been to the Palestinian territories often. I was never in Gaza, but I was in the Palestinian territories, what's called the West Bank.

Yeah.

All I saw was building and more building and more building. Is that accurate?

Of course, of course, of course. You know why? Because it's— because we have open borders with Israel. 24 hours we can move inside Israel and getting out. This is why there is no blockade from Israel on the West Bank. This is why the West Bank is just growing day by day.

Yes.

If you will come these days to Ramallah, right?

I did. I was in Ramallah. Yes.

Which does not exist in Washington, D.C.

And one more thing that is worthy of note, a restaurant that believes it has the finest hummus in the world. Do you agree with that?

And it is much more expensive than in the UK and Paris, by the way.

But some, you crack me up. So I'm reflecting now on the ocean of lies in the Western media and the universities. Israel is committing genocide. As I often point out, it is the worst genocide ever committed because Palestinians keep growing in numbers.

Yeah, we are.

So it's a very failed genocide. When the group is growing.

You know, you know what I noticed here in, especially in the United States and in the campuses and in Europe, that there is a kind of a fight, a fight between those groups like the BDS, the, the Students for Justice for Palestine.

Boycott, divestment, sanctions.

Yeah, the Students for Justice for Palestine.

Yes, right.

the Jewish Voice for Peace, right? These people has a real fight with Israel.

Yes.

On a specific agenda, but they are using the Palestinians. They are not falling in love with the Palestinians, right? They don't like us at all, by the way, but they are using us,

right? You're so—

And this is unfortunately how the Palestinian case Has been used since 1948 until these days.

The left uses Palestinians, the left uses blacks, the left uses women, the left uses gays.

What these leftist people ever benefited the Palestinians? Tell me.

Zero.

Tell me.

Zero. That is exactly right.

Yeah.

So I'm curious, in light of this, has any American university invited you to speak?

I was many times.

Really? I mean, it's shocking. Oh, what was the last one you spoke at?

I think that it was in San Diego in February last year.

What do you mean? The year before? Because last year they had nothing.

The year before. Yeah. And then the corona came.

Right.

And then I spoke in Israel.

What was it, UC San Diego? Yes. Yes, I did. Really? You did? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What group invited you? Do you remember?

I remember Stand With Us invited me.

Oh, so an Israeli pro-Israel group invited you? Okay.

I have no problem to be invited by pro-Israeli organizations. That's right.

But that's what I mean.

Yeah.

It's almost inconceivable to me that the history department of UC San Diego would invite you because they're all anti-Israel, which would interest me tremendously in light of your realism and truth-telling. How do you explain the hatred for Israel in the world?

I think that it is something related to the antisemitism. Rather than to any other things.

I agree.

And I believe that Europe, as an example, right now is trying to move backward towards its own history with Israel. And unfortunately, Europe also in the meantime using the Palestinians right now to fight Israel. I don't think That we the Palestinians, you know, the problem is that the Palestinian leadership didn't realize yet how much we the Palestinians has been used by the others. They didn't realize yet. Probably they realize it because these days we also used by our own leadership. Look to the Hamas, how they are using their civilians as human shields.

Right.

Look to the Hamas, how they are protecting their rockets by using their own inhabitants over there.

Right, right.

Look, so we also used by our own leadership these days.

So on the West Bank, where it's not Hamas, if there were free elections among Palestinians on the West Bank, Who would they vote for? For Fatah or for Hamas?

I have very interesting answer for you. Just two months ago, there was a survey conducted by the University of Al Najah in Nablus. A survey,

right?

And the question was: If the elections will take place today. For whom you are going to vote,

right?

You couldn't believe what the results were. Seventy percent said neither the Hamas nor the Fatah.

Oh, interesting.

So why to make elections? Yeah, that means that I think that the majority of the Palestinians almost fed up

with both,

with both, with both, because both of them are corrupt. In the meantime,

which is more corrupt?

I think each one is more corrupt than the other.

I had a feeling I'd get a great answer to that one.

Yeah.

That's right. The answer to which is more corrupt is yes. Yeah. That's the

answer. Right, right, right.

But the fact remains.

So all of these, all of these.

Right.

in the West who are sitting in their warm houses,

right,

calling Israel apartheid, genocide, whatever.

Yeah.

Please come to Gaza. Right. I want to see you surviving for one week in Gaza.

Yes, exactly. If there was an actual free election in Gaza, who would they vote for?

It would never, ever be any free election. I know why the Hamas is ruling.

Correct. That's why I said if.

So I can, I can, I can give you the answer.

Yeah.

That if an election will take place tomorrow, tomorrow in Gaza, 100% will vote for the Hamas. Because if you are going to vote for another one, you will be killed.

That's correct. I understand. No, no, it's like voting for— Exactly.

It's like in Syria.

In Syria. Yeah. Yes, I agree.

I agree. It's an Arab regime.

So what do you think, though, as a Palestinian, if they could secretly vote, what would it be? Or is it a silly question?

It's okay.

You could say it's a silly question.

The majority.

Yeah.

Of the Palestinians in Gaza. Yes. Right now.

Yeah.

Don't want elections. Don't want anything. They want only one thing.

Food.

How to escape from Gaza to another country.

Oh, fascinating.

This is what the people are. You know, when I talk with the youth people in Gaza.

Interesting.

They used to tell me, listen, Bassim, if Israel tomorrow morning will open one of its passages for 2 hours.

Yes, everybody would leave.

30% of the yachts will escape to another, will flee to another country.

Here, so here's a real great question that nobody would answer. But so, Ghazan, if you could live among Palestinians in Gaza or among Jews in Israel, where would you live?

In Israel.

Even the Gazans?

Of course. Oh, of course. Of course. You couldn't believe that even the Palestinians in the West Bank, they don't want to accept the Gazans.

I believe that.

Yeah.

Because they're too extreme?

Because we are from a different culture.

It's a different culture.

Different customs and traditions. Even different accent.

It is. It's a different accent. Is their accent Egyptian? Egyptian, exactly. It is? So they say, they would say Gumuria?

Yes, Gumuria, right, right, right, right, yeah. So even in the West Bank, even Abbas himself told the Jordanians and the Egyptians, I don't want to see one Gazan in the West Bank, close the borders. Now a Gazan is not allowed to travel to Jordan and to come to the West Bank. Do you believe that?

Yeah, it's not allowed, right? It's really so. Imagine, imagine what? Yeah, go on.

Imagine that we, the Palestinians, are still very interesting to keep Gaza separate,

of course,

from the West Bank,

right?

And I want to remind everybody, yeah, who is going to see us that the only one. Who united the West Bank with Gaza is Israel after the '67 war.

Oh yeah, because of the mistake that Begin made.

You know, there was no one passage between '48 and '67, no one passage to link between Gaza and the West Bank.

Exactly, exactly. I never thought of that, which is my fault, but that is fascinating. Do you ever debate Palestinians?

Sometimes, yes.

In the West Bank?

Yeah, but not on cameras. No. Oh, not on cameras.

So you're not on Palestinian television?

No, no, no, no, no, no. Palestinian television, forget it. No, they will never put me on. Yeah, they will never. Yeah.

Too bad.

Yeah.

That would be a great day. Are you on Israeli television?

Yeah, I was. I was a lot, even in Arabic programs. Yeah.

You speak Hebrew?

Yeah, I speak, of course.

So if your Hebrew, is it fluent? You speak— Fluent. Yes.

I can read, I can write.

Right. Israeli Arabs speak Hebrew fluently, but not generally Palestinians.

No, Palestinians, the majority, I think that there are more Palestinians speaking Hebrew rather than Israelis speaking Arabic.

Yeah, I believe that.

Because we used to work.

Yeah, of course.

The majority of the Palestinians working in Israel and they learn. And I think that the majority of the Palestinians in the West Bank right now—

What passport do you travel on?

A Jordanian one. I still have the Jordanian one and the Israeli travel document. The Israeli travel document, I'm using it only when I leave Israel and I will come back to Israel.

And your children, what do they travel on?

The Jordanian passport. Also Jordanian. They got it through you. Yes.

I see.

Yeah, we still can keep talking till tomorrow.

That's correct. Forgive me for philosophizing, but this is what I do. The issue in life is truth. Al-haqiqah.

Right. It's painful. Truth is painful.

Yes, but for people like you and me, it's liberating.

For very few people.

We breathe.

For very few people.

For very few people.

Yes. Yes.

This is so important.

Yeah.

That's what it all boils down to.

Right.

We, and we just live in the world of lies about the Middle East, about everything else. I mean, it, but that, but we're talking now about the Middle East. The situation, the objective situation of a Palestinian under Israeli rule Is good.

Much better than it is under any other Arab country.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah, I can speak it very proudly and loudly.

Would the angry Palestinians in the parliament, in the Knesset, would they agree with what you just said?

Between themselves, yes.

Yes, between themselves.

Yeah, of course, of course, of course. You know, these people getting a salary, a salary of over than $4,000 a month. Come on, this is paradise.

You don't, you don't, you don't make that in Lebanon.

You couldn't make it in Ramallah. In Ramallah, you couldn't make it.

That's right.

Yeah.

Oh my God. You are a joy, my friend.

Thank you.

You really are a joy.

Thank you.

Let me philosophize one more time before I say thank you to you officially. One of the Not one of. The greatest perk of all of my work is meeting wonderful people. And you are one of them.

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure.

So God bless you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Bassem Eid is a major Palestinian figure and journalist and writer, but most important, a truth seeker. And I don't know if there's a difference between courage and truth seeking. I don't think there is. I'm Dennis Prager. This is the Fireside Chat. I'll see you next week.

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