The Current Discussion: Are Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama on a collision course over Iran and the Palestinian problem? What would be the consequences of a breach between the United States and Israel?

After the de facto defeat in Iraq, America seems to have reached an awakening long overdue: America’s national interests are fundamentally different from Israel's. The Zionist regime has confused America’s support (initially a humanitarian assistance program) with a silly perception of a right to occupy Washington or somehow game and dictate policy to the largest economy in the world. Alas, the game is up. These childish tactics are unsustainable and incompatible with national interests of America—despite Israeli hype, lobbies and calculated ill will of mislabeling of other religions as a political ideology.

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The Current Discussion: American newspapers are in dire financial straits. How are newspapers faring where you are? Are you concerned about the future of journalism in America or in your own country? What does that future look like?

It is very ironic that newspapers have always been on the lookout for change, new ideas and the latest technologies and change but they have tried to keep a very old business model alive with very old-fashioned ideas and advertising. Moreover, the destructive competition has faded the contrast that distinguished one from another and technological advances has allowed the distribution of, say, a New York newspaper in Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas (and Tehran, Beijing, Moscow and Berlin via the Internet which embeds video clips too.)

Advertising that kept the old-fashioned business up and running, and keep customers happy, at least for the older generation and a comforting relapse to read material on physical paper while glancing at advertising. Newspapers (and magazines) have a “push format” design and provide a selection of information, made by editors along with display advertising. But times and behaviours have changed: we are all increasingly pulling information that we require (if only to avoid the mass “infotainment” carpet bombing). We are increasingly seeking specific information by, say, searching on the Internet about shoes, cars or Darfur, or visit our favourite websites or program the machine to search news about that topic and send it to us (or change the TV channel when the stories of O.J. Simpson or Brittany Spears is pushed as news!). Newspapers are in a business plan dilemma as they have straddled both the digital and physical formats. They now have a global reach (and deliver this article from Tehran, for example) but do not have local roots abroad to derive revenue from advertising in the local language. But can they afford to kick the can down the road? It is decision time to rethink the business model.

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