The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Biden and Netanyahu -- The Relationship Couldn't Be Worse

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

An exchange over the weekend has set the relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden in a very hard place. Biden first gave an interview on Saturday night and then Netanyahu responded on Sunday. The two men, it seems, couldn't be further apart on how to resolve the crisis in Israel and Gaza. Today, Janice Stein deconstructs the interview with Biden that started the weekend back and forth. Plus we unveil the question of the week!

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. Biden and Netanyahu, that relationship is over. And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here in Stratford, Ontario. It's our regular Monday episode of The Bridge, and that means Dr. Janice Stein. And the latest on the situation on this day in the Middle East. And we're going to get to our discussion with Janice in just a second, but I do need to settle a little in the background. The relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Joe Biden, the President of the United States, has always been, you know, a bit tense. But right now, tense is not the word. It's over. Those two obviously do not like each other, do not agree with each other

And are on absolute opposite sides of the fence on how to deal with the situation in Gaza And specifically now in the community of Rafah at the southern end of Gaza Right near the Egyptian border Biden wants the Israelis to promise not to invade. Netanyahu says they're going to invade. He wants the hostages all released. Now, Biden wants hostages released,

but is prepared to go through the process of the negotiations, which have certain commitments on both sides. So where's all this leading? The weekend saw Biden give an interview on Saturday night. Yesterday saw Netanyahu respond. And it's the response and the interview that clearly has set the tone that these two are not going to get along at all. So what we wanted to do today was deconstruct the interview because we have it. Well, we have a portion of it that deals with the Middle East and anybody can have it. You can just go on the MSNBC website.

But before we get to it and the discussion with Janice on deconstructing what's in that interview, let me just say a couple of things about these interviews that happened with presidents of the United States. I was lucky enough to have one with President Obama shortly after he became president, sat there in the White House, was told I had 10 minutes,

stretched it into, I guess, about 12 or 13, which, you know, the White House people in the background kind of sort of waving, giving the wrap-up and signal. But nevertheless, you know, the interview was fine. It was good. We touched on a number of subjects. But I wouldn't say there was a banner headline, excuse me, a banner headline with the exception perhaps of, I felt he conceded that the Afghanistan

war may not be winnable. As it turns out, it wasn't winnable. And the Americans checked out and the Taliban checked back in. It wasn't just the Americans who. In any event, that interview, you know, was a big gain for the CBC to get the interview in the first place. But as I said, there weren't a lot of screaming headlines out of it. Now, on Saturday night, MSNBC had an interview with Joe Biden. Same ground rules, you know, you've got 10 minutes. They stretched it into about 12 or 13. They got lots of headlines.

And as a result, that's what we want to do. We want to deconstruct the interview in terms of the impact it has right now on the Middle East story. So, with that as a background, let's begin that conversation with Dr. Janice Stein, Middle East analyst, foreign policy expert, conflict management expert. Here we go with Janice Stein. Okay, Janice, I'm going to start this off a little differently than usual. It's rare when you get an interview with the President of the United States

that it makes real news. You know, there's always sort of the news that he did an interview, but real news is often a challenge. Jonathan Capehart, who's, you know, an anchor with MSNBC, and a good one, works the weekends, got an interview with Biden on Saturday. And it's about 13 minutes long, the whole interview, of which six minutes is about Israel and Hamas. And he's got half a dozen, at least, little news clips in this interview. I mean, he really hit the right spot with Biden to make real news.

So the easiest way to deal with this is to run it. So we're going to start our session today by running this six minute interview, Jonathan Capehart and Joe Biden. And here we go. You were caught on a hot mic after your save the union address talking to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Senator Michael Bennett, saying, quote, I told him, Bibi, and don't repeat this, but you and I are going to have a come to Jesus meeting. What do you mean by that? What I meant was it's an expression used in the southern part of my state, a serious meeting. And it was I've known Bibi for 50, and he knew what I meant by it. So what's the come-to-Jesus part? What tough love are you going to give to the prime minister?

What's happening is he has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas. But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. He's hurting, in my view, he's hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world. It's contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it's a big mistake. So I want to see a ceasefire. And I'm starting with a major, major exchange of prisoners for a six-week period. We're going into Ramadan.

It should be nothing happening. And we should build off of that ceasefire. And look, I've spoken with the majority of the Arab leaders from Saudi Arabia to Egypt to Jordan. They're all prepared to fully recognize Israel and begin to rebuild the region. And that's the focus. What comes after Gaza? What's next?

It's a tough decision, but there's a lot that can be done. On the ceasefire, it is Saturday. The holy month of Ramadan starts on Monday. Is it possible that a ceasefire deal could be reached in time for Ramadan to start? My CIA director in that region right this minute still talking about it i think it's uh it's always possible and i never give up on that what is your red line with prime minister netanyahu do you have a of a red line for instance would invasion of rafa would you have urged him not to do would that be a red line it is a red line but

I'm never going to leave Israel the defense of Israel is still critical so there's no red line I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them they don't have but there's red lines that if it crosses and they continue cannot have 30 000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going out there's other ways to deal to get to to deal with the with with the trauma caused by hamas it's like i well it's the first time i went over i sat with them and i sat with a work cabin i said look don't make the mistake america made america made a mistake we went after bin laden we got him. But we shouldn't have gone into Ukraine. I mean, we shouldn't have gone into the whole thing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It wasn't necessary. It wasn't necessary. It's caused more problems in the race than it's cured. Who actually wants a deal? Do you think Hamas actually wants a ceasefire? Well, I think Hamas would like a total ceasefire across the board because then they would see they have a better chance to survive and maybe rebuild. But that's not what I think the vast majority of people think. You have to look.

After what happened in World War II and the carpet bombing that took place, what happened was we ended up in a situation where we changed the rules of the game, our constitutional and legitimate rules of war. And they should be abided by. Someone suggested you should go back to Israel and address the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Is that something you would do? Yes. Would that have to be at the invitation of the prime minister or could that be at the invitation of the president?

I'd rather not discuss it more. Does that mean that that has been discussed, the possibility of going back to Israel and addressing the Knesset? Okay. Let's talk about the temporary pier that you announced during your State of the Union address to get supplies into Gaza. It's going to take 60 days to get that constructed. What more are you doing in the absence of cooperation from Netanyahu and a bill from Congress to get supplies into Gaza, more humanitarian aid

into Gaza? Everything we can. We're pressing Israel to open up access to the north from Israel. We're also doing airdrops. I know several people were killed with airdrop as a way to avoid that in the future we're working with our arab friends to figure out how much we can get in everything look this is a desperate situation food medicine everything needed badly needed and it's needed now um you're heading to michigan where um on the campaign trail probably

in the next few days where more than a hundred thousand people voted uncommitted in in the primary to protest your handling of the situation in gaza some have said they will never vote for you one told charles blow of the new york times and I'm quoting, as bad as Mr. Trump's rhetoric was and him putting a travel ban on five Muslim countries, he wasn't overseeing and actively arming a genocide. Those are tough words. What's your response to that widely shared sentiment? It's not widely shared. You guys make judgments you're not capable of making.

That's not what all those people said. What they said was they're very upset, and I don't blame them for being upset. There are families there. There are people who are dying. They want something done about it. And they're saying, Joe, do something. Do something. But the idea that they all think it's genocide, that's a different situation.

Look, I can fully understand. Can't you? You have a family member there, a family member of families that come from a family that is still isolated there and may be victimized. It's understandable they feel that way.

And that's why I'm doing everything I can to try to stop it. Well, there you go. And thanks to MSNBC for allowing us to use that. It's up on their website if you want to see it. Anybody can watch it. But Jonathan Capehart's interview with Joe Biden, as I said,

it was a 13-minute interview. That's about six minutes of it. It's about a half of it. But there's all kinds of news drops in there. And we'll deal with them individually, Janice. But first of all, your overall impression of what you saw there. It was a striking interview, Peter. I couldn't agree with you more.

And Biden is angry. He is angry. You know, he was on a hot mic earlier this week, and he said, I'm going to have a come to Jesus meeting with BB. And the reporter said, well, somebody said to him, you're on a hot mic. And he said, good. He is trying now to send a message. He's had it.

He's fed up. I think, you know, I talked about that last week. He is now going public uh with it and when he said getting hamasa rafa is not worth another 30 000 dead palestinians he could not make have made himself clearer frankly well there's no doubt there's a lot of things in there where he's very clear there's no doubt there's a lot of things in there where he's very clear. There's others not so sure about, but let's deal with some of them. He uses the C word, ceasefire, for one of the first times that he's used it. You know, Kamala Harris used it, but now the president of the United States is saying right there,

I want a ceasefire, and I'm telling him I want a ceasefire. Does that get him anywhere? Does that get him anywhere? Does that get him anywhere? Right now, the obstacle to the ceasefire, as everyone is saying, it's not only the United States, but it's Qatar that is threatening to expel Hamas political people if a ceasefire is not reached. The obstacle is Hamas. Now, what's Hamas asking people, if a ceasefire is not reached, the obstacle is Hamas. Now, what's Hamas asking for, Peter?

They're asking for a complete ceasefire, which means an end to the war, and allowing Palestinians who are in southern Gaza to return to their homes in northern Gaza, and a complete prisoner exchange. And that's where the deadlock is. So Joe Biden has said, and he said in the interview, I want to start, I want to cease fire now. I want to start the six-week ceasefire and exchange, some exchange and build from that.

He's straddling the divide there. You can hear him. Literally, you could hear him maneuvering his way through it. That's where he is. That's where their team is. So that's an effort to get Hamas to sign on now with a promise that they will do everything possible to make sure that the fighting does not resume. But if you push that team to the wall they will say as they are saying privately all week

right now the obstacle is a must because israel has agreed to the six-week ceasefire and the limited exchange what it has not agreed to what nathaniel has not agreed to he made very clear is a permanent ceasefire well you know it's one thing to say i want to cease fire and sound tough about it it's another thing to say if you don't give me one i'm going to do this and that's the kind of red line question which he he's clearly waffling on you know he likes he likes to use the word red line but he's not saying what the red line is or if there even is one so i listened to that twice to make sure that i heard that i heard what i thought i heard that first time he's the red line is you cannot go into rafa and kill um innocent palestinians in process of doing it. He didn't ruffle on that.

What he did say, and he did it in a kind of Joe Biden foot-in-the-mouth way, was, look, I'm going to distinguish between the defense of Israel. So that is a response to the pressure to cut off military equipment, which, you know, there are people inside the United States, even on his own team, there are people inside the United States, even on his own team, who are advocating that. He said, no, I'm not doing that for the Iron Dome. Now, the Iron Dome is an entirely defensive system. It covers the country, and it's the missiles that the Iron Dome uses to shoot down incoming rockets that come from Gaza.

So listening to that, he was really clear. The red line is no offensive operation in Rafah, which is all that is stopping a permanent ceasefire here. That's the argument. Okay, that's my question. Is that all that's stopping a permanent ceasefire? I mean, we went through the whole thing about the prisoner exchange and an end to the war in a total way, which is what Hamas says it wants. So I hear what you're saying, and you know this stuff better than I do.

But how does promising not to go into rafa equal ceasefire i'll tell you how um and boy the rhetoric from nathania who was so heated this week over that one issue you know asking uh israel not to go into Rafah to finish off those four remaining battalions of Hamas fighters. But let's add to the subtext here and getting Yaya Simar because all their intelligence is, how reliable it is, I don't know, is that Simar is still in Rafa, hidden in the tunnels. Asking us not to do that is to lose the war. That's Netanyahu's position. And he addressed that. That's all.

The second big issue is the day after. What kind of government will be set up? No, I mean, they're narrowing in on a government of what they call technocrats for the morning after. There's still a really tough political negotiation to come. But once you give up on going into Rafa, there's no reason not to have a ceasefire. So that's where the fight really is. And I don't think that fight is over.

We've seen Netanyahu. He is fighting for his political life. And this is his way of coming back to the Israeli public with a victory. And especially if he can get Simar. That would, in a sense, in his view, be very persuasive to the Israeli public. And Biden said in the interview, there's another way to deal with Hamas. So that's where he's drawing the line. That's where he's going to have a fiber fly on the wall. Let that come to Jesus meeting. I would bet it's about you're not going into Rafa. It is not worth the price.

There are other ways to get this guy. And this guy is. Yeah. Who is assumed he's still in Gaza. Yeah. Who's just soon. That's right. And look,

he was the one, there was a deal on the table last week, right? Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, the United States had agreed on the six week pause. And Hania, the political leader of Hamas, was at that meeting and or outside the door of the meeting, but very, very close. He agreed. Then they had to reach back to Simar, wherever he is, but most likely in Rafah. And he said no, Peter, is he issued a statement calling on Palestinians to

march on the Al-Aqsa Mosque once Ramadan starts in the hope of inciting violence, because that's what he wants right now, is an escalation in the violence. And

Ramadan starts today, Monday. And there are always large numbers of Palestinian worshippers who come to the Mosque of Omar for Ramadan. And there are Israeli security police that manage crowd control because of really large numbers of people he wants an escalation violence so you have a scene war right now that's going for broke frankly can you um place the importance of ramadan uh in the arab world to us yeah it's you know it is um it is one of the biggest muslim holidays uh it's it's it's the most important and you we can argue about you know but it is i would say it's one of the the most

important holidays in the islamic calendar and by the way peter not only in the Arab world, all through the Islamic world. So it's Indonesia, it's everywhere in the Islamic world. This is a holy month. And why is the mosque of Omar so important? Because it's from there that the Prophet Muhammad is alleged to have ascended to heaven that's what makes that mosque so holy and located in jerusalem that's what makes it the third holiest city uh islam mecca and medina being the first and so people come in their thousands um to pray starting today. It lasts for a month. It's a lunar holiday.

And that's why the date changes in our part of the world. But it is, you know, not only the devout. Every holiday, I think every religion has holidays that even those who are who are

mildly identified, nevertheless observe and celebrate, that's Ramadan, this 30-day fasting period that goes from dawn to dusk, and it culminates at the end of the 30 days. And there will be thousands of people who will ascend to that mosque. She sent a message.

This is the opportunity for an uprising, for violence. Well, we can hope that that's not what happens. But the other thing that Capehart raised was the possibility that Biden would go back to Jerusalem or go back to Tel Aviv or go back to Israel, basically, to speak in the Knesset. Is that interesting? Yeah. I mean, he definitely ducked it, but he didn't say no. Oh, he said yes. He said yes.

That was amazing, Peter. At that moment in the interview, when Capehart asked him, would you go and address the Knesset, the parliament, which is in Jerusalem, in Israel, and he said yes. I thought he said, I'm not going to talk about that. Oh, no, that's not what he said. And he didn't qualify the yes. We'll check. I hope I'm right. But he didn't qualify the yes. And then Capehart said, well, would that depend on an invitation from the prime minister

or would an invitation from the president be enough? And he said, I'm not going to talk about it. It's hard to believe believe it's hard to imagine that the prime minister would invite him but it is it is it's easier to to think that the president might he might i mean that would rupture finally there's not a good relationship between president herzog and the prime minister anyway but that would set that relationship on fire were he to issue that invitation what we were buying was he boy that yes just jumped out at me because really what he's saying here is i'm done with you bb i am going i will go over your head and speak to the

israeli public and i think if there's one issue, Peter, that the Israeli public, which right now is beleaguered, frankly, you know, you remember when there were American hostages in Iran and news anchors every night finished a broadcast. This is the 318th day that these hostages are around. The coverage of the hostages is non-stop. It has actually flooded the media

in Israel. Just to digress for one second, but it's so fascinating. In Israel, the media coverage of hostages is non-stop. You see very little on Gaza. And on Palestinian TV, no discussion of the hostages, no discussion of the rapes and sexual violence.

And, of course, these heart-wrenching pictures of people killed in the airstrikes and of a malnourished Palestinian boy who died a day ago. So there are two totally different universes in which people who just live a few miles from each other are living. But if there's one thing the Israeli public cares about, they get this, it's that the relationship with the United States matters and that you don't blow that up. And if the president of the United States comes and says, here's what I expect and here's why I expect it and here's why it's in your interest,

because that was another astounding comment in this interview, Peter, when he said Bibi is hurting Israel more than he's helping. Right. Can you imagine the president saying, well, Prime Minister Trudeau is hurting. Well, you've got to be careful on these things, too, as you well know. It's one thing to criticize from afar. It's another thing to go into the country

and basically take on the democratically elected leadership of that country on an issue like this. I mean, you know, it's obviously a much different situation, but we threw De Gaulle out, right, when he started spouting off about Canadian politics. So that would be a hell of a gamble. It would be quite a moment. It would be a hell of a gamble. It would be quite a moment. It would be a hell of a gamble,

but I'm going to come down on the other side of the bet, okay? And I'll tell you why. We've had a year where hundreds of thousands of people are in the streets in this country over judicial reform, right? And they called it a judicial coup. And they are back in the streets now, not in as large numbers, but they are back in the streets during a war,

which is almost inconceivable. There are calls for me, you know, for elections now. I'm fundamentally saying this, this prime minister no longer has the confidence of at least half the country that's less of a risk to go into that kind of situation if you're the president of the united states and you know were i crafting that message there's two pieces it needs to stop it needs to stop now it is harming your security and the united states will be with you for defense but it's not a blank check and that's what he's saying um last point on on this um the americans have have said they're willing to build or are going to build basically a port for gases so the humanitarian aid can get in.

Yeah. Which, you know, because clearly there are issues with an airdrop. I mean, people are dying from some of these things hitting them. But a port, you can't build that overnight, although the Allies built ports in Normandy almost overnight. You know, the Mulberry ports, they built along the shore. But they're saying it's going to take two months, two months to build a wharf or dock or what have you that's big enough to handle the big ships that would come in.

Two months, that would put you past any six-week ceasefire. It for sure would, Peter. And let me just say, it's way too long, right? It's way too long so we all understand what we're dealing with. We have about a half a million Palestinians who are desperately hungry, malnourished. And we are in the north of Gaza and we are on the precipice of famine.

And there will be the old and the very young who will die. And so this situation, I think that's partly what's driving Biden. And that was a piece in an interview, too, in which he said, I get, I get why Arab Americans are upset. Now, you can write that off as good electoral politics. And of course it is. But there's a part of Joe Biden that really does get it. And there's an urgency there. The easiest piece to respond to for Bibi, who is feeling the really intense pressure now from the United States of a kind that I don't think any Israeli prime minister has ever

felt to this degree. There's been a lot of tension and a lot of conflict between the president of the United States and Israeli prime minister. Nothing of this order of magnitude. Well, if you're if you're Netanyahu, fix this problem. You need it because a port is not going to do the job even when it's built here. Airdrops are not going to do the job. The real issue with here is distribution. Once the aid gets to the borders of Gaza, how do you distribute it?

That's the issue. That's the explanation for why that convoy was swarmed last week. There's no security on the ground to deliver that aid in the midst of war. And that's the most compelling reason for a ceasefire right now. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and then come back with the what are we missing segment, which is interesting because it's very close to what we're talking about here right now.

Before I take the break, though, I should, because I know I'm going to get letters from the D-Day experts who will say, yes, that's true, they put those mulberry ports in right away along Normandy, but they'd had months to build them in Britain and elsewhere and then tow them over. But nevertheless, you got my point. Yours is a fair point, by the way, because Cyprus is going to cooperate here, right?

And it's a short distance and the builders are not under fire. Exactly. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. And welcome back. You're listening to The Bridge, the Monday episode with Dr. Janice Stein, University of Toronto, Monk School. And we're about to move off from the Middle East and talk about a segment we like to call What Are We Missing? But it's an interesting segment today because it relates in many ways to what we talked about in the first segment.

I should remind you, you're listening on Sirius XM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast platform. Janice, take it away. What are we missing? So what I was paying attention to this week, Peter, in the midst of all the dynamics we just talked about is the desperate situation of the economy in Egypt. You know, we often talk about war, and we look at the order of battlefield,

and we look at the order of battlefield and we look at political dynamics. But we probably miss the huge impact of this war on the economy of the neighboring countries, of which Egypt is the most important. It's the biggest, 100 million people um before the war about 15 to 8 depending on how you measure percent below the poverty line it's a poor country and then what happens well starting with ukraine where food exports and fertilizer particularly wheat exports were blocked. Egypt is a wheat-eating country. And all of a sudden, the price of food, wheat, went through the roof. That's a staple.

Well, who does that affect? Obviously, the poorest in the country. 31% inflation now in Egypt. 31? You know, we know how people feel when they see their savings eroded. And this is not a country of savers because so many people are below the poverty line

or just above it. A precipitous drop in foreign currency reserves that Egypt uses to pay for food imports to make this misery even worse. And they just devalued the Egyptian pound in an effort to bring inflation under control. Fifth devaluation in the last two years. So I'm trying to paint a picture of economic misery. That's what it really is. Now, to be fair, President Al-Sisi is building a new capital in the desert

with mega skys scrapers. You know, the city of the future, which has cost, I think, somewhere in the order of $60 billion. So you can imagine the frustration, the anger of large parts of the Egyptian population. What happened this week? Two more factors really that contribute to this economic misery. One of this is the Suez Canal.

Shipping, we talked about this container shipping, dropped off because of the hoodies. That's a principal source. Foreign exchange reserves. Tourism. Huge part of the Egyptian economy because it brings in big foreign exchange. The hotels are empty because they are a war adjacent state. Nobody's going. So Egypt finally got an IMF

loan, an International Monetary Fund loan. It was supposed to be $3 billion. It's now $8 billion. But IMF loans come with conditions. You cut subsidies. You're reigning in spending.

So yes, he's put his big city on pause. But the subsidies are what pays for the wheat and the basic foodstuffs that the bottom third of the Egyptian population relies on. That's what led to the bread riots in 1977, and that's what brought people out into the streets against Mubarak. That has been a historic trigger in Egyptian politics. So that situation sounds like it's heading towards critical. Yeah, yeah.

You know, again, we talk about malnutrition and poverty and famine extreme in gaza but just over the border on the other side you've had the impoverishment of the bottom half of the middle class and for the poor in in egypt this has been nothing but a catastrophe. You think al-Sisi wants an end to this war? Yeah, exactly. I think he wants an end to this war yesterday. And no wonder he's at the table on wherever those talks take place, including in Cairo where they have taken place over the last few weeks as well.

That city issue is bizarre. I mean, he's clearly trying to be the Dubai and the Doha of North Africa. Yeah. But it's on pause now. It's on pause. Well, there's always an interesting twist. The UAE just advanced. The Emiratis, who are, I would say, the most under-recognized kingmakers of the Middle East right now, just gave Egypt a loan of $35 billion. They made that loan conditional on Egypt getting the IMF loan. And what's the $35 billion for to develop the Mediterranean coast of Egypt?

Well, you know, the UAE is one of these days we should talk about the UAE because it is a much bigger player than a lot of people give it credit for. And sometimes they don't mind not getting the credit for it. I mean, the whole Trump connections in that part of the world are always said to be Saudi Arabia, but they were just as much into the Trumps, just as much into UAE as they were into Saudi. Absolutely.

They are huge investors. We should do a what we're Missing segment on the UAE because there are huge investors in North America. They are a tiny country that is a global player. Well, we'll do that. I'll write that down in our notes, and we'll get to that in one of these weeks. Janice, we're out of time.

That was a good one, and we thank, once again, MSNBC and Joe Biden for contributing to the bridge today. That was a fascinating interview. It really was cool. Fascinating. And what a cool journalist Peter to get that out of the president.

I mean he's Capehart I've always enjoyed. He's kind of a laid back, interesting guy. He's very how should we say it? He's very progressive as a commentator in the US. And I'm sure that helped in some ways of him getting the interview,

but he didn't hold back. He went for it on all fronts and good for him. Okay, Janice, we'll thank you for this and we'll talk to you again next week. See you next week, and have a good week. You know, you'd think I'd learn after all these years talking with Janice on television and now on the bridge not to question her when she says, this is what I heard.

Because she was right on that issue. As you know, I'm sure a lot of you were sitting there going, Peter, you're wrong. Janice was right on the question about whether or not Biden would go and speak in the Knesset. Because yes, he did say yes. My point, poorly constructed as it was, was to suggest that if he's being invited, and that's a big if, he wasn't going to talk about it.

He has to get into that kind of messy issue of who did the inviting and what does that suggest between the president of Israel and the Prime Minister of Israel. But the bottom line on the question of would he go if he was invited, Janice was right, I was wrong. So there you go. All right, another fascinating Monday discussion. And I've been equally fascinated by you because I've been,

you know, you tend in this business to kind of get a sense of who's listening to what. And while good talk is always the number one program of the week, the Monday program is, has been second, um, continuously. And even,

uh, once just a couple of weeks ago, it was number one. It was the number one show. And it's because Janice Stein is a rock star on this issue. Is she always right? No, and she's the first to admit that. But she has deep knowledge of the story and the situation, and she has strong opinions about the direction in which things are heading. And that's why it's not just me who calls on her for help. It's government and businesses literally all over the place, And that's why she's always invited to conferences

in different parts of the world that are dealing with everything from conflict management to foreign policy to Middle East. And last week, as we mentioned, she was at an AI conference in California. And, you know, listen, AI is going to be part of the foreign policy questions of the, not just the distant future, but like right now. So anyway, I'm going on and on here,

but I do have time for one other thing. I should have mentioned it at the top of the show, but I'm mentioning it now. Mondays we unveil the question of the show, but I'm mentioning it now. Mondays we unveil the question of the week, which has been another successful new change to our program, lots of new, not only new audience, but new participants. Last week was a classic example where I think about probably somewhere around 80% of the letters we got, and we had a lot of letters last week,

were from people who'd never written before. And that's wonderful. That's great. And I think this one will be too, this question. Just before I give it to you, a reminder, I know some of you like the old format on the Thursdays, your turn as well. And that's why we're kind of mixing it up here at times.

Every once in a while, we'll do a what's on your mind question. So you can just go on any topic you want. Maybe that'll be next week. But this week, here's the question for this week. This is a different kind of tone on this one, and really drawing upon your own expertise and your own history of reading. Because the question is this. If you could name one book, one Canadian book,

so in other words, got to be written by a Canadian, that you would recommend to read? And why is that? So if you could name one book, one Canadian book, written by a Canadian, what would that book be and why? And just to ensure, not a book either written by me or co-written by me

or including a paragraph by me. This has got nothing to do with me, okay? A book written by a Canadian author that you think is really not only a good book, but one that would enrich all Canadians by reading it, or non-Canadians. Okay? So, make your argument. Make it a paragraph. Your name and your location.

A couple of people last week, again, forgot the location. I'm going to start playing hardball on this. You know, not asking much. Keep it short. Include your name. Include the location you're writing from. It's nice to get that geographic twist on the program each week. And have it in by Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern time.

Okay, Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Okay, Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Any letters that arrive after that won't get considered. The winner will get a Canadian book. One of mine, I'll sign it and mail it out to you. Okay, that will be that for today. Tomorrow, we're going to take another look outside the country as well. This is the year that more than half the world will vote, and it's interesting to talk about that and what we see developing

because in most countries where there is a vote plan, the incumbent, no matter the party, is in trouble. Tomorrow, we're going to London. We'll talk to my friend and a contributor to the bridge, Andrew McDougall, former director of communications for Stephen Harper. He's working for a consulting firm in London now, has been for the last few years, and has been a great voice for us from the British capital on what's happening, not just in Britain, but elsewhere. But an election coming up in Britain in the not-too-distant future,

and it kind of fits the bill and the profile we're talking about in countries with elections upcoming. So that's tomorrow. Andrew McDougall, join us for that one. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening today. Talk to you again in 24 hours.