This time... its personal!
As teachers always trying to show the relevance of history to current events, Alan and Mike were perturbed to hear some of Jared Kushner's leaked comments. They feel that Kushner is accurately expressing a commonly held belief that smart people can solve political problems just by looking around and ahead, but not behind. They aren't really interested in the current administration, but in the reality that this idea seems to be so pervasive in our culture.

So they embark to show how George Santayana's famous aphorism relates to trying to make peace in the middle east. In this case the relevance of the last 50 years of middle east history to making a peace deal.

Its a battle royale between two quotes! One from Jared Kushner and one from George Santayana!

The Kushner quote is, "Everyone finds an issue, that 'You have to understand what they did then' and 'You have to understand that they did this.' But how does that help us get peace? Let's not focus on that. We don’t want a history lesson. We’ve read enough books. Let’s focus on, How do you come up with a conclusion to the situation?"

The Santayana quote is question is, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Who is ready to grumble?!

Also, here are some other quotes from Santayana that relate to the topic:
"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child."
"Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim."
"The wisest mind has something yet to learn."
"Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness."

Kushner leaked remarks http://bit.ly/2hjAxmZ
George Santayana http://bit.ly/2umHFQS
Aaron David Miller on Kushner remarks http://politi.co/2vkJqSG
Freedom House World Map http://bit.ly/2kNaJRs
Freedom House on West Bank http://bit.ly/2u3HLxz

Listen to more episodes, and let us know what you think! We are happy to take topic requests.
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