featuring the history of harrisburg, pennsylvania. together with our comcast cable partners. learn more about other stops at c-span.org. you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. night, outgoing fcc chair tumblr talks about his three year tenure as the commission, its major decisions, including net neutrality, and the issues he sees facing the trump administration. the interviewed by technology reporter for politico. givee idea that we should a lot of responsibilities to the ftc is something that the networks have been pushing for years. before i took this job there was a headline, an article in the washington post that said in

essence, here is how the network intends to gut the fcc. and it would be tragic if that happened. >> watch the communicators monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. next, history professor gil troy looks at u.s. israel relations through the views, policies, and actions of american presidents from harry truman to barack obama. presidentialixon library and museum hosted this hour-long event. professor ofis history at mcgill university. last fall he was a visiting scholar at brookings institution and american presidential historian, the author of 11 books, including the recently released -- recently released age of clinton, america in the 1990's. as the best book

on president clinton in his time. the book is for sale in the store right after the program and professor troy will be here to sign it for you if you like to purchase it. his previous book was designated by jewish ideas daily as one the best jewish books of 2012. other works include morning in america, how ronald where -- ronald reagan invented 1980's. why moderates make the breast presidents, hillary rodham lady,n, polarizing first and two books on original research. see how they ran, the changing role of presidential candidates, and mr. mrs. president, from the treatments to the clintons. a weekly columnist for the daily beast and the jerusalem post, troy contributed to the campaign stop section of the new york times in 2012 and recently in

2016 and has been widely published and cloak" it -- and quoted with recent articles in times and politico. 7-98, he served as chairman of mcgill's history department. he was promoted to full-time professor and has repeatedly as onebt -- designated of mcgill's most popular professors and was singled out by the history news network is one of the first 12 top young historians. please join me in welcoming professor gil troy. thank you. [applause] morning. thank you all for coming out. thank you, mike, for your leadership. it's amazing to see this collaboration between the csp and the richard nixon library. week just lecturing this about nixon to my students. starting with the same thing

that we begin with, the chaos of 1968, i said you thought 2016 was crazy, we had a crazy campaign. offensive,, the tet the kennedy assassination, we had serious trauma going on in the country. richard nixon was elected by just a few votes. and therom the center left were in from a. people were saying what's going to happen, the country's not going to survive. the country faced its challenges, but the country survived. constitution is strong, or people are proud, our people are decent, and we should stop moaning and groaning, love him or hate him, the president-elect will become president on january 20, and we all have to give him a chance to succeed or fail trust the constitution.

go on, applaud. patriotic when we criticize, but we all have to be patriotic citizens when we deal with the complexity of the president who is both our king and prime minister. i want to start by apologizing very long and a complicated journey to take with you in the next three hours. i saw the anxiety go up. going to do because we're in the next and library is give a quick intro and we will focus on the 1970's and then a quick exit and look at the conclusions. i will start with the notion

that is creating another distortion, which is the history through the oval office. and the relationship between any countries is multidimensional. so i'll just be trying to tell a narrative thread that helps us by going through some of the individuals. let's go on to the first slide. we will start with a pop quiz. who said, the survival of israel is not just a political issue, it is a moral imperative? that is my deeply held belief, and it is shared by the majority of the american people. a strong, secure israel is not just in the interest of israel and the u.s. and the free world, in fact, he said -- it is a he -- it is a president. i told the house of representatives i would commit political suicide if i did not

support the state of israel. this is the audience participation part of the program. who said it? truman, right? he is so proud when he supports the state of israel and says, i am cyrus, invoking the bible. no, it is not truman. it could have an david ben-gurion imagining what the president would say. no. i am helping you that it is a president. maybe next in, right? -- maybe nixon right? it was said in his memoirs that he was the best friend israel ever had. eisenhower, because he had his frustrations. he supported the state of israel. innovation is one thing, but when you establish something, it is more important. in fact, it was said, jimmy carter in 1977.

fooled you. first message is that life is a river. [laughter] prof. troy: history is a journey. one of the things that frustrates me especially in the clinical period we're going through right now is we are so quick to judge, so quick to label. anti-israel, pro-israel. every single person we are talking about today is pro-israel. there are truly anti-israel forces in the world, and i never want to recruit someone who is a critic of israel to those awful forces who reject the right of israel to exist. we have to be more careful, more deliberate in our language. even if we criticize someone for not being superficially supportive of israel or in israel policy. when jimmy carter said that in 1977, the start of his journey

-- just because he said something then, it does not stop him from writing an awful, evil book accusing israel of apartheid when he did not even make the case in his book but simply put it as his title. this is a way of saying, let's enter into a journey where we will see complexity. just as ari told you to put your phone on mute, let's try to put our partisanship on hold. when i say to my students is, can we talk about politics without being partisan? can we open up and just listen and learn? as somebody predicted, we going to take the -- take the next slide. we are to see the model as a relationship. we are going to think about this relationship. when i warn you about all or nothing -- it is also she loves me, she loves me notism. we are talking about a complicated and special relationship.

what has been extraordinary is that since 1948, it has been very solid even with the ups and downs. those have been in the newspapers and in the oval office, but the solidity of the relationship between the people and the military, the economy is continues to be there. we start with, as somebody mentioned, harry truman. 1948. harry truman, who still is not fully accepted as president by many americans, because the president, of course, was franklin roosevelt. the classic truman story is that one of his aides writes in his diary the day after franklin roosevelt dies, harry truman, this unknown senator from missouri who became vice president because he was not a threat, is now president. the guy writes in his diary, i promised myself that when i sit down with the president, i was going to call him mr. president.

i walked in and said, harry, how you doing? he was just such a harry. by 1948, truman is establishing his presence and his -- and there is tremendous pressure. what do you do? november 29, 1947, the united nations has recognized there is going to be a jewish state called israel. what should the united states do? truman is under tremendous pressure. george marshall, a legendary war hero has all but offered to resign. plenty of people offered to resign but don't really want to. he says, what do you want to do, you cannot support this country of 600,000 when there are tens of millions of arabs out there. when are we going to do? don't do it. there is lobbying from the jewish community. this story everyone likes to tell,

, of what happens. harry truman had been in world war i back when they called it the great war. they did not realize there would be a world war ii. he was a happy dasher -- he was a haberdasher. the store went bankrupt. the two of them worked hard to pay back all the debts and they have a bond for life. they were were buddies and now arrives and economic catastrophe. the story people like to tell is that eddie jacobson calls up truman and says, mr. president -- he remembered to call him mr. president -- i want you to meet a great man, who would end up being the president of the state of israel. 11 minutes after the announcement of the state of israel, harry truman recognizes the state of israel.

i hate that story. [laughter] prof. troy: it is lovely, charming, but it reduces a very complicated multidimensional act by a president simply to sentiment and old ties to a haberdashery. i'm not saying it is not true. it evokes an old-fashioned, medieval vision of the court jew, who would intervene to personal relations. again, it is a phenomenon. what else is going on? what year did this occur? 1948 is the actual establishment of israel. what is going on/ elections. historians always say, what is my favorite text? context. take the camera and pull back. don't just look at the u.s.-israel relationship through the presidency but understand, what is hay truman thinking about? he is thinking about the start

of the cold war and the shock americans are going through. we finished the wars. what is the geopolitical dimension involved here? in november 20 9, 1947, both the soviet union and night stays had voted for -- soviet union and the united states had voted for a jewish state. they are both vying for the jewish state's support. there is also the political angle. there is the famous memo from clark clifford saying, if you're in trouble -- dewey wins. the prediction was that thomas dewey was going to beat harry truman. he said, you have got to build a new coalition. that coalition includes the jews of new york, who care about this issue. because of the electoral college -- we have learned recently that

has relevance -- the jews have a disproportionate impact on the votes of new york. so there is a political calculation. when harry truman the decision, he is balancing different factors. i prefer to see it that way. i taken the personal. -- i take in the personal. i also learn the story of harry truman, who grew up reading the bible and he understands, as so many presidents understand, the connection of the jewish people to that land, the holy land. the understands the values of the jewish and american people,

shared by common democracy. there is a whole picture. during this very difficult moment when israel does not just want recognition but they want arms, weapons, oil, truman gives the support, and that is about it. i want to give a shout out to my father, bernard troy, who helped smuggle weapons to israel -- probably illegal at the time -- but i think statute of limitations is ok. there was a whole smuggling operation going on from new york to the fledgling state of israel. the united states government may be turned a blind eye. fundamentally, no formal weapons agreement, no formal military pact, no formal alliance. never was. harry truman continues, feels great about what he did, and he passes on to dwight eisenhower this complicated and growing relationship. eisenhower feels truman is too sentimental, he was too political. you should not have let political calculations come into effect when you are deciding the middle east. and the famous moment with

eisenhower is -- again, pro-israel, supporting the right of the state to exist -- what happens is in october of 1956 -- 48 plus four is 52, 52 plus four is 56, another election-year. on the eve of the election, what happens? israel, being attacked constantly by egypt in the south , lies with not united states but france and united kingdom and goes in and -- you fill in the blank. liberate, conquer, recruit the sinai peninsula. it is on the eve of eisenhower's reelection campaign. he feels double crossed. how come you did not tell me? i'm supposed to be the representative of peas and prosperity, and you do this on the eve of my reelection? he pressures israel. this is the short version. he pressures israel to pull back, and the u.s. puts a buffer zone between the egyptians -- an army between the egyptian border and the israeli border and says, we will have u.n. buffer troops

to make sure there will be peace for the next 50 years. no, it did not work. eisenhower's are membered as a kind of critical friend of israel. nevertheless, a friend. there is an interesting book that came out that we are going to see again that points out, as eisenhower got closer to retirement and as things in the arab world got complicated -- when we look at our multidimensional perspective, we have to remember that -- and as nassar starts aligning with the soviet union, we start seeing in the last couple years of eisenhower's administration, a move toward israel, but still no formal arms exchanges. we continue on our journey, and we get to john kennedy. the jews know going into the 1960 campaign that kennedy is not their friend. why?

because john kennedy is the son of joe kennedy, a notorious anti-semite. when he had been ambassador to england in the 1930's had been -- i like to be careful in language -- i would not call him pro-nazi, but he was certainly in the debate that was going on, someone who was a little bit softer on germany and not pushing for war. he was the notorious son of an anti-semite, he is not going to be any good. one of my favorite stories about that has to do with a 1960 campaign, when martin luther king was imprisoned in georgia on a traffic violation and thrown into the depths of the georgia prison system. without polling, without

consulting, john kennedy pick up the phone and called credit scott king and said, -- called coretta scott king and said, we are going to watch out for him. robert kennedy, not even consulting with his brother, called the georgia attorney general and said, this man does not die. you watch this man. credit scott king is very grateful. she goes to daddy king and tells him the story. he says, we are going to take a whole heap of oats and took them -- and put them on john kennedy's doorstep, even know he is catholic. of course, he is the first american catholic running for president since al smith. traditionally, african-americans had been republican supporters. who is that guy who ran against him in 1960? richard nixon. john kennedy arrives on an airfield. what do you think about the fact that the father of this great

civil rights leader seems to be a bit of a big it -- bigot? without missing a beat, he says, we all have fathers, don't we? [laughter] prof. troy: i would say that in some ways, john kennedy's father encouraged him to reach out to the jewish people and the fledgling jewish state. he actually visited palestine and saw what was going on. again, i apologize, we are telescoping horrifically. he understands the importance of having a deep relationship with israel, and he has a problem. he says, ben-gurion comes and gives me some $10 bible, i have to say thank you. my wife jackie is giving me amazing stallions from saudi arabia, what am i going to do? he turns to a diplomat and says, can you tell jackie to hold off on the stallions? she says, tell jack and keeping them. -- tell jack i am keeping them. kennedy was building on what

truman had done. truman was so proud that he supported israel. he sought as biblical and he remembered that cyrus had brought the jewish people back after the destruction of the first temple -- the truth is he invited them back and many of them stayed in babylonia, but that is a whole other story -- and kennedy understands that it is going to be about shared values. he speaks about the state of israel and the deep connection that we have. look at that last line -- "it carries the shield of democracy and honors the sword of freedom." he started to see shared values and interest. two democracies in a world which does not have many. under kennedy, we see the first arms agreement. a very important image.

it is missiles against -- antiaircraft missiles, defensive. we not going into an offensive relationship. who is the main suit -- main supplier of israel at the time? france. we jump ahead, and john kennedy is tragically assassinated, and lyndon johnson comes in. especially after the trauma of a presidential assassination -- when you go into the presidency, you never know what is going to happen, for better and for worse -- and johnson says, everybody thinks that john kennedy was israel's best friend, but i am truly israel's best friend.

let's talk about the fact that part of the reason americans -- kennedy was so charming and so ivy league and so perfect, and especially after his assassination, he becomes the smarter. merrick -- he becomes this martyr. and johnson is accrued southerner from texas -- is a crude southerner. he likes to relieve himself while his aides are watching to make them squirm. this is not our idea of a president. johnson says, you don't understand. he feels, like so many presidents at that time, feels the power of the need to support the jewish state, because they saw what happens when anti-semitism is rampant -- the holocaust. it affected john kennedy, it affected lyndon johnson, it affected all of these presidents from what we call the greatest generation, including richard nixon. he says, i'm going to be their best friend. he, too, in a speech will talk about our society's spiritual insights with the hebrew prophets. we have a common love of freedom.

he also says, my christian faith springs from yours. we are brothers. what an amazing thing. did not happen in poland, russia, morocco. the extraordinary bond between the american people and to his people, american presidents who accepted jews as one, is not something we should take for granted and should say thank you for. the prime minister of russia goes, why are you supporting him? you have got 3 million jews at the time and 80 million arabs. lyndon johnson says, because it is right. for all the love of israel, the relationship can get compensated. while there is the start of military leadership, the question of what johnson will do in may of 1967 and what israel would do is write obligated. -- is very complicated.

let's go back to context. nassar has united egypt, jordan, syria. they are threatening every day to throw the jews into the sea. when somebody threatens to do that, you take that threat seriously. the jews in israel are in trauma. they clan to in tel aviv -- they planned 10,000 graves because those are the casualties they accepted -- expected. and france called out. -- pulled out. who is going to stand up for us? we look closely at the next memo, and we see the u.s. was unsure. there is a memo from someone to president johnson. they talk about the israeli aid package. we see the military relationship building. he says, i have told the ambassador we will substantially

meet their requests. that is quite -- coy. there is a game going on here. when i particularly like is that in the fourth paragraph, it says, you may want to ask if they have any intention to attack syria. you are president and you are still trying to figure out what this guy is going to do in the middle east. the next line is a memo from jean ross dow to ambassador harmon. in the second column, he says, we're going to support you and i want you to know that should there be any attempt to interfere with free and innocent passage through the strait or gulf, united states government would consult immediately with the government. hmm. do you want more enthusiastic support and at? united states supports israel,

that's israel, but during that difficult month, ultimately the prime minister goes in with a preventive strike, and we know what happens. i want to emphasize that for all the growing intensity and support, there is also a kind of dance going on. that is the intro to the richard nixon period. there is a greater bond. we are now in a period of more interdependence. can't live with them, can't live without them. we see that this is an era of nixon, kissinger, the israeli prime minister. while her reputation in israel has had its ups and downs, she is still quite loved in the united states, especially among jews.

she had the ability to tell, to tell the whole story in one line -- we jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the arabs, she would say. we have no place to go. we do not rejoice in victories, she would say, we rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries blossom in israel. about old age, she said, old age is like a plane flying through a storm. once you are on board, you can't stop the plane or the storm or time. you might as well accept it calmly and wisely. words to the wise. she also said -- and to this day people quote this -- that we will have peace when the arab world loves their children more than they hate our children. i don't want to demonize or go into stereotypes. but there is a certain truth to that that still holds, and that yearning for peace continues. anyway, nixon is charmed by her. she is very charming, born in russia, grew up in milwaukee.

she is little bit of an old jewish lady. and it works. and the two of them spend time together. nixon is going to be the first prime minister to visit israel. if i had time, i could do a whole lecture on nixon and israel. you can see a tape on youtube of richard nixon greeting golden mere -- golda meir at the white house. a very moving movement -- moment when the marine band plays. golda meir -- f gil: i think this was the jewish national anthem. we will rush ahead to 1973. israel realized that there intelligence was wrong and that american intelligence was wrong. there was going to be this message surprise attack. these memos give us a sense of what is going on.

the israelis are asking for support. the americans are debating " what do we do?" if we oversupply, what about the day after? will the israelis be too strong? at the same time, golda meir is worried about the destruction of a third temple. what are we going to do? 2700 israelis died in that way. michael oren points out that israelis tend to tell the story of yom kippur is a great military defeat. at one point it was taught as an amazing military victory. eventually, israel won. there was a surprise attack 75

years ago in december. america one, pearl harbor, world war ii? this is for the group therapy session afterwards. these groups help to see the tension that is going on. they are talking about this resupply and henry kissinger is talking to investors in the state of israel. he says you have to paint it all out. the planes that are going to be used -- how do you test them on? you don't want to make it too obvious that it is coming from the united states. they are going to come in generic looking plants. the tension is growing, what do we do? there is a great line.

he says it is absolutely essential that senators and congressmen don't go around attacking the president. they called me to tell me that there is a story going around saying that i kept you from preempting. henry kissinger goes from don't attack the president to don't attack me. these little stops by kissinger give a preemptive strike during this difficult days. the real tension is the resupply. nixon who supports the state of israel has a good relationship with golda meir. this occurred in 1972. january, february, march, april, 1973, the watergate revelations are coming out. nixon is frustrated, terrified. he now has an opportunity to lead. he finally says -- everybody says don't do it, be wary.

he said we would take as much cr ap for sending everything we have as we would if we sent only a little. so they did. golda meir hears that and she cries. the israeli people feel so abandoned and terrified. you see those planes coming and over the streets of tel aviv? richard nixon is seen as the savior of the state of israel. i can feel the power in the room right now. the conservatives of orange county are in love with me. but now, buckley was he does, we are going to go ahead and show the complexity. there is a mystery about richard nixon. at the same

time, we know that richard nixon said some pretty nasty things about the jews. [indiscernible] gil: we are going to continue. the contact is it is april 19, 1973.

nixon is about to go to russia. he is going for this pre-election. he is worried that the jewish community is making travel over the issue of soviet-jewish immigration. henry kissinger says he will put the blame on them and do it before 80 million people. they put the jewish interests above america's interest. it is about time that the american jew sees that it is america first anti-jewish second. -- and the jewish second. how do we reconcile the two?

i direct you to the words of len garment. this was richard nixon's law partner. he was an political exile. they became good friends. garment was a proud jew from brooklyn. he was in a jazz trio with alan greenspan. that is another lecture. [applause] [laughter] garment is appointed. in fairness, they did not like him. garment says that nixon was a champion hater. he hated people who opposed him. if you are in his way, he pushed through. so, he says that this is a kid who grew up in the 1930's. if you show me a christian or a jew who does not have some trace of anti-semitism in his or her

soul will show you a human being who has a body that contains no germs. he says that i live in is complicated world, i understand that sometimes when he was angry he used these ugly words. i understand that he appointed me and henry kissinger. he supported the state of israel. i will play this for you with billy graham. nixon has a little secret for that. he says that the best jews are the israeli jews. what we see in nixon's mind is that american jews and israel he jews -- israeli jews. -- i'm not supporting anti-semitism, i'm not justifying it.

but this guy who saves the state of israel also ended up saying these ugly things. as historians, it is not our job to sit and judge. we need to explain and contextualize and see complexity. if we understood the complexity of the relationship more, the debts would be less -- the depth would be less nervous all the time. we can see germans moving forward as the supporter as of the state of israel. he wants to put pressure on israel because this is the end game. we continue but under gerald ford we had that moment where daniel patrick carnahan stands up and says "i must stand." he said i never had a close tie to israel. as a professor i was never invited to one of those fun trips. he sees this as a tap on

decency. if i could share one moment, very powerful. in the weeks before, this of the resolution is passed in the general assembly. they go to the him is right committee and what happens there? of course it passed. moynahan doesn't speak. len garment gets up. he says this is an obscenity. as a trial lawyer, what word would i use? obscenity. it sullies us all. the united states will turn this into a battering ram. he says the jewish people are not trial, the united nations is on trial.

it did not the fill its ideals. they passed a resolution on to the general assembly. the delegates breakout and mock applause. herzog is watching this display and told the israeli delegation to hold -- to clap their hands. he knew it would be embarrassing to them. from across the room, a tall, 6'5" irish catholic kid came up. he stands up, crosses the room, hugs herzog and loudly yells. they walk arm in arm out of the u.n.. that is the tension.

that of the resolution shows to us what the real challenges are. that of the resolution shows us that anti-israel forces really exist. they single out one country. despite the fact that it was voted in. they say that is the country that is a legitimate. that is the country that is not acceptable. that is the country we will demonize. that is the country we will minimize. they said the country doesn't have the right to exist. who does that? you don't question the right of pakistan to exist. it is only israel that is on probation. in that context, that of the context that started, moynihan called it the big red lie. you want to use the uglies weren't word in the international vocabulary and

that is racism. there is a national conflict, you see the worst racism always used. apartheid--this ugly analogy. and lies about colonialism. what kind of empire is this? do you want to criticize the settlements? fine. when we see the role of the united states and we see how as a result of those moments, those bonding moments, jimmy carter comes in and despite the issues he had, they negotiate the peace treaty. they want to throw that him l.a. pass -- hail mary pass. we see after carter, and comes ronald reagan. one of the things we start seeing is the pattern with eisenhower.

with reagan and george w. bush. with george h.w. bush, relationships are a little rocky and bond and become clear as reagan saw how important israel was in defending the west and defending democratic values and defending america. what we see with george h.w. bush is that he is most famous wit israel overlong guarantees. we forget that in 1991, george h.w. bush had his chief diplomats working the phones to rescind the racism resolution. we then see bill clinton working so hard to match the high standards set by jimmy carter. indulge me, one important antidote -- anecdote. clinton goes in and embraces and tries to get that famous picture

shaking hands. it was the magic of the 90's. it was the magical time when the soviet union is falling apart and germany was divided and nabbing united. there is peace now breaking out in northern island. there is peace breaking out in south africa. it seems like we have a shot at peace. the clinton is very clear, he is criticisms of the israelis but in his memoirs he says that in his last days of the white house, when yitzhak rabin came to visit him he says that i am a failure because of you. we could have had peace and you weren't ready to make that. when palestinian leaders are willing to do this is what will happen. it was only after 9/11 and after

the korean eight incident where armaments were being shipped from iran to the palestinians were intercepted by the israelis. despite the fact that the israelis sent george w. bush a big packet but forgot to tell the media, the media only showed the picture of all the armaments . george w. bush says you get to lead to a texan wants, not a second time. -- once, not a second time. that led to a greater intensity in the relationship. with the barack obama relationship, they said that he was the greatest friend of israel ever. i think others have more valid claims to that. two golden anti-israel is a mark of immaturity and a market

resource the conversation. he believes in tough love toward israel where bill clinton believed in love - love toward israel. when they feel supported, they are more willing to compromise. if you ask me how i feel, you can call me when everyone, i go to my defensive crouch. if everyone doesn't talk about my legitimacy, i'm i trust them, psychology 101. -- i might trust them, psychology 101. i want to end with three thoughts. one -when i tried to give a sense of? the complexity and depth. it is a three dimensional relationship. there are connected and bonded. the united states of america understand that we need each

other. it is not some artificial relationship that emerges only because of powerful lobbyist. there is no lobby powerful enough in the world to shape this kind of depth. to shape the kind of love that moynahan showed. you can't they get those kind of values. you can't make up the kind of the eventuality. i will end with two different expressions. everybody likes to talk about shared values and shared interests. i think we have seen that. i think we can look at how the united states relies on israel, stable, democratic society in the middle east that has gone mad. we have seen how it is not just a one-way relationship but a two-way relationship. a true relationship.

the american people, 60 or 70% remain supportive of the state of israel. i would say shared interests and values. i would add a third, shared challenges. the united states of america is going to a difficult time right now it is democracy. israel is as well. let's learn together. let's learn about what it is like to create a vibrant, healthy democracy in the 21st century in the age of the internet. in an age of growing polarization and partisanship. how do we go together and learn from each other? twin democracies are sister democracies. finally, i will end with three words that were said and sung by israelis in the streets of tel aviv. god bless america.

god bless america for being a model to the state of israel for a constructive liberal democracy can function. israel was made up of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from nondemocratic countries. the united states taught israel how to be democratic. god bless america, we are so lucky to be in a country with all of its laws and challenges. it is still a stable, decent and knows how to do the right thing. thank you very much. [applause] we have time for a few questions. questions are short, pointed and they end with a eh? just as a canadian scholar. >> you talk about the relationship of tough love or love-love. would you think that would work with the u.n.?

or is the when a lost cause -- is the u.n. a lost cause? gil: this gets to the heart of the problem. the united nations is the world's greatest social service agency. the united nations is the greatest force in world history fighting disease, fighting illiteracy, but equally good in many corners of the world. as a result, when something ugly it's at about israel, so many people in developing countries experience the u.n. as their savior. they believe that it is racist. that is where we get this bizarre thing that the former u.s. ambassador talks about. we talk about going to landlocked countries in africa. one of the problems is how do

you condemn a organization that does so much good? at the same time, we have this general assembly. we had this human rights condition. rather than focus on the horrific slaughter in syria and the ugliness in saudi arabia, the death penalty's that are in iran. we have no choice. we have no choice but to try to fix the united nations. i will previously -- previous -- a previously mentioned this. in 1975, moynahan thought hard. people said that you were not being diplomatic. tone down. he said what is this toning down? what am i supposed to do? being diplomatic does not mean appeasing. sometimes it means being tough. sometimes, standing up to your adversaries. more so, we saw in 1991, it led to the first time in human

history that a resolution was sidetable. -- sidetabled. what is our favorite text? context. we have no choice but to be there and fight. when i say we, i mean a big broad coalition of human rights. they need to care about democracy and the u.n.. the f2 hope and pray that we have enough leadership and enough luck to take advantage of the changing world to push the u.n. to be what it should be and what it could be and what it off it isn't. >> there is an elephant in the room. mostly in regard to the president-elect. where do you see the new administration going in regards to israel? >> the president-elect is donald trump? [laughter]

gil: the question is where do i see the president-elect going? this election season certainly show that as a historian, it is hard enough to predict the past, let alone the future. let me say a few things, one, let's quote donald trump. donald trump was the grand marshall of the israel day parade in 2007. it was the best parade ever. that goes down in american history as one of the most embarrassing foreign-policy credentials ever. so for those who hate donald trump, what does it emphasize? we don't know, he doesn't know. if you are a donald trump supporter, the appeal is that he is an outsider, he has no

governmental experience. part of the danger of donald trump is that he is an outsider and eight -- and has no governmental experience. we don't know what he will do. that is number one. number two, he does have an understanding of these shared interests and values. i don't think he is really into the shared challenges. he has an understanding of israel. he is a politician that goes by gut. ivanka tells him that israel is with him and so israel is with me. the concern is -- in israel. i will answer in israeli. when united states catches a cold, israel catches a fever. is this a time that we are going into of instability? immaturity? insanity? it would be bad for the united states, israel and the world.

the second concern is the art of the deal. he said when he was speaking to the republicans coalition that i am a dealmaker. i can do it. on the other hand, the other thing is that in the orthodox world, there are people who are so frustrated with barack obama's tough love that they feel it is time for a new approach. they want to go back to the bill clinton love love. if they do that, they will be in good shape. are there any other questions? we have time for one more were just my summary. ok, my summary. i want to go back to where i began.

i am well aware that these are difficult times. it is hard for us to sit down in a public forum and talk about donald trump respectfully. to talk about donald trump without getting angry. i understand that we are in a time where it is hard in the jewish community to talk about israel. where do we start? that is a big problem. we start with what we disagree with. let's start with the common values that we have. let's find a left-wing jew and a right-wing jew to argue. let's start with what being a jew means to make? then we can get to a fight. similarly, in the united states, we can go red or blue. all the time. one thing i have not mentioned is republican and democrat. i don't think there is a republican or democratic style of supporting israel.

there is a presidential style of supporting israel. a healthy democracy needs issues. on which left and right, red and blue republican democrats agree. , that is the vision i want to leave with you. we need to issue our proclamations when we disagree. but we have to remember that there are things on which we agree. that was the message. the message of and koch if you , agree with me on seven out of 12 things, please will permit, if you agree with me on 12 out of 12 things, please see a psychiatrist. i think we need a massive intervention. [laughter] [applause] thank you all for coming up.

we try to finish so you could get yourselves a much. -- some lunch. if you want to check out the museum, the forget, this is for sale. if you want an autograph, he will stick around a little bit. happy hanukkah and merry christmas everybody. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] you're watching american history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend at c-span3. on twitter for information on her schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. night, outgoing ftc chair tom wheeler talks about his three-year tenure as the head of the commission, his major decisions including net neutrality and the issues he sees facing the trump

administration. >> the ideas that you should scale back the fcc and give a lot of its responsibility to the ftc, is something the networks have been pushing for years.