In the new Middle East where people talk a lot behind the scenes using the new high-technology communications, we have far more frequent interactions with people who live in countries ostensibly at war with Israel. Such conversations are always interesting and useful for analysts.
Sometimes the exchanges are even happening in public. I’ve been interviewed a number of times, for example, by Iraqi journalists. But this time there was a different kind of question at the end of the interview. In the last query, the journalist asked what message I had for Iraq’s people.
For a moment, I was speechless. I’ve been waiting more than 30 years for that kind of opportunity. What should I say that wasn’t just special pleading or an obvious exercise in hasbara (public diplomacy)?
