At Hadassah’s 97th annual convention in Las Vegas last month as the Gaza war was raging, conservative Wall Street Journal foreign affairs columnist Bret Stephens and liberal Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit discussed the current situation in Israel and the future of Zionism. Las Vegas? Stephens remarks in passing: “We are in occupied territory right now; I just want to remind everyone in this room of this fact.”
Professor Gil Troy served as the indulgent moderator of the two in what was styled as a debate. Martin Kramer, on whose Twitter feed I found the video of the debate, scores it in favor of Stephens on points. This is more of a discussion than a debate, and both Stephens and Shavit are worth listening to, but Stephens is the guy who really needs to be heard and who justifies taking the time to consume the video below (80 minutes). Stephens’s excellent opening remarks appear at 24:30-44:30.
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