So, what am I thinking about today?

(1) Breads Unlimited, in Bethesda, our usual source of challah for Shabbat, has started to add 50 cents to the price of a challah if you want either poppy seeds or sesame seeds on it. I don’t know if this is the fault of Biden or of the Federal Reserve, but I assume they share the blame and that if Trump is elected for another term in November, this inflationary surcharge will be dropped. In the meantime, I will pay my 50 cents, but I also notice that about 1/3 of the poppy seeds fall off the challah before I even take it out of the bag. If so, should I get 1/3 of my 50 cents back? Should I save the poppy seeded bag and bring it back the following week to demonstrate my right to the 17 cent refund? I really need advice here.

(2) Yesterday, I wrote about my problems with my dermatologist’s Patient Portal, and that I was told that all would be explained when the office “manager” called me to talk to me. It has now been 48 hours, and no one has called me yet. I’d like to complain, but because my problem with the Portal is the apparent lack of a way to communicate, I don’t think I can give anyone my thoughts. Again, I blame this on Biden. But just blaming it on Biden doesn’t help me solve my problem. (Of course, maybe the answer is in the name itself: Patient Portal. Maybe it’s telling me: “Arthur, just be patient”)

Now you ask: why are you thinking about these totally unimportant things? The answer is simple. I think about Breads Unlimited and my dermatologist’s Patient Portal because I really don’t want to think about what is happening in Gaza, or what is happening in Ukraine, or what is happening on many college campuses. Can you blame me?

On Wednesday, I listened to an interview with John Mersheimer, who teaches at the University of Chicago, and is known for his sometimes controversial positions. I was listening on YouTube in my car, and I don’t even know who was interviewing him, but the interview took place about a week ago. Mersheimer claimed that Russia was going to defeat Ukraine – no ifs, no ands, no buts about it. And he seemed to think this whether or not the U.S. gave more funds to Ukraine and got over the impasse in the House of Representatives which has now stopped future funding in its tracks. It’s the first time I heard anyone say this and Merhseimer, who describes himself as and is known to be, a realist, simply thinks that Russia has the manpower and the resources to fight on and on and on, and that Ukraine has limited manpower and limited resources and, perhaps especially because of the limitations on its manpower, will at some point have to give up.

Which reminds me. Throughout my legal career dealing with affordable housing, one of the memes (I don’t really know what a meme is) that you kept hearing about was “a public-private partnership”, as if it was the answer to whatever the problem was. I never found public-private partnerships to be a panacea – and not because of the failure of the private partner; it was usually the government which was unable or unwilling to fulfill its side of the deal. It’s a lesson that Ukraine may be learning the hard way, and that the Biden administration should have realized before giving the assurances that they did.

Mersheimer, who some years ago authored a controversial book about the Israel lobby, of which he was very critical, was also asked about Israel’s lobby today. Now I am not a Mersheimer expert and I never read his earlier book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, but when asked about the Israel lobby on this podcast, said that he had no problem with it – that lobbying is part of the American system and that Israel has as much right to lobby the government as does the National Rifle Association.

He also alluded to something else, about which I know (knew) nothing – that the rules about having to register as a foreign agent before lobbying the government on behalf of a foreign country either (a) does not apply to Israel, or (b) is not enforced against those who lobby for Israel. I know nothing about this – he didn’t say it in a questioning way, just a matter of fact way. He also said that the relationship between Israel and the United States was perhaps the strongest alliance between two countries in history.

Finally, I continue to wonder what will happen to Gaza when the war is over. I have talked about this time and time again on this blog, but I still wonder. Who will govern Gaza? Who will fund the reconstruction? And so on. And with 2,000,000 Gazans displaced from their homes now, with food low and health care sometimes non-existent, and close to 20,000 people dead, how will the current generation of Gazans ever be able to live alongside Israel? Only the other Arab countries, taking control under some sort of an agreement with Israel, backed by the U.S. and maybe Europe and the UN have a ghost of a chance. Emphasis on ghost.

Enough for today.