So you could argue that people can have a more direct perception of him than of any previous president - not like, say, JFK who got tons of fawning press but then when you read the inside stories, you realize that while some of his good sides may still have been real, there was a lot of less admirable stuff that just didn't get reported on.

Of course, Trump's Twitter persona is also to some extent an exaggerated, larger than life version of himself - in much the same way that in earlier decades he used to talk on radio shows or in gossip press articles, or his persona on The Apprentice. So it kind of cuts both ways - you can hear from him more directly and less filtered than from previous presidents, but in a format that's maybe less representative of his real thinking than it may seem to be.

I think the perception of Trump is based on his Twitter feed, on what he says in interviews and of course also on what is reported, anonymously or not, in the media about him from people who interact with him. So certainly that has everything to do with what he does or doesn't do. Of course the mainstream media is reporting extremely negatively on him, but hardly more than he deserves.

I don't think they are major breakthroughs when it comes to resolving the Palestine question, though they may be quite important economically for Israel - and in the case of the Morocco deal, if that means that the Israelis of Moroccan heritage can go back and visit their homeland, that's a big deal for them as well of course. But you're of course also aware of how the Trump administration obtained those things - in the case of Morocco, by abruptly abandoning a decades-long international consensus about the status of the Western Sahara, which ensured that not only Moroccan public opinion would be outraged about the peace agreement, but also that of other North African countries, especially Algeria.

As for Netanyahu, I think comparing him to Erdogan makes more sense than comparing him to Trump: Netanyahu and Erdogan are leaders who are certainly smart enough and had real achievements when they first got to power, but somewhere along the way, their overwhelming priority became clinging on to their power at any price, the country's best interests be damned. Of course Netanyahu hasn't made a mockery of democracy in the process, the way Erdogan has, but that may be more thanks to the stronger Israeli institutions and democratic resilience, compared to Turkey, than to the man himself.

I guess you could argue that's Israeli society (or really western society in general) becoming a victim of its own success in keeping violence to a minimum, to the point that the young generations no longer consider it among the biggest problems out there?

Well, see above - I wouldn't call Netanyahu a dictator, but if you look at the accusations against him, the way he's tried to turn those to his political advantage and the way he's made his personal immunity and protection from lawsuits the priority in negotiating coalitions, you can hardly deny that the guy wants/needs to be PM for his own selfish reasons, not to do anything for his country. Not that other PMs didn't have large egos or were necessarily all that great, but they weren't as blatantly self-serving.



Sure, the media and especially social media contribute heavily to the continued polarization in the US, Israel and many other countries. But they didn't make Trump into a complete dumpster fire and a joke of a president, he did that all by himself.