In the early 90s, a political & personal friend of many years wrote an article saying the Oslo Accords were the best the Palestinians could get & they would have to eat them. In a letter to the editor, I objected that the Accords were terms of surrender & self-determination could be won through struggle. The fellow responded with a fury, compared me to a rabid sectarian, & severed all personal & political connections with me. It smarted at the time.

A few years ago, another longtime political & personal friend called me a crank who is overly critical & nurtures old grievances. That smarted.

Today, both of them are Assad supporters rallying for counter-revolution against the revolution in Syria & in a furor about those old airplane hangars.

The moral of the story? Don’t disagree with me or you’ll end up less than redoubtable hacks marching for dictators like Assad & Putin alongside allies like David Icke & David Duke.

(Tongue-in-cheek alert but maybe disagreeing with  me will lead you straight to political hell. Why chance it?)