The Week Ahead
 
I’m off to Israel for the week, teaching in a couple of Tikvah programs, seeing some political and government types as well–and, I hope, doing some good old-fashioned sightseeing. I’ll report on the trip and what I learn in next week’s newsletter.
 
Meanwhile, I’ve got to say the timing of this trip is a mixed blessing, because it’s a busy week here in the States. On the one hand, I’ll miss President Obama’s Tuesday night State of the Union address, which will be good for my blood pressure and my general disposition. On the other hand, I’ll also miss tonight’s college football championship game (unless I wake up at 4:00 a.m., which is entirely possible, given jet lag–but even so I’m not sure the game will be televised over there). But that’s not so bad because I really have no strong feelings about Clemson-Alabama, except a general root-for-the-underdog disposition which leads me to hope Clemson wins. Also, since only one of you picked Clemson as the winner in our championship pool, while a couple of dozen chose Alabama, The Weekly Standard will save a lot by only having to send off one generous prize instead of many. Go Clemson!
 
Then on Thursday night there’s the GOP presidential debate. I think I’ll try to get up in Jerusalem to follow it live–and I sure hope the hotel has room service and can deliver a large pot of coffee to my room at 4:00 a.m. I trust that can be arranged–isn’t that the point (in part) of the Zionist enterprise that Israel will be a normal nation like any other, with 24-hour room service in the classier hotels if so? In any case, if you see my tweets during the debate (go to Twitter and search for @BillKristol), or if you see I have a blog post up soon after the debate at weeklystandard.com, please take into account that I’m reacting to what’s going on at an ungodly hour (if one can speak of such a thing in the Holy Land).  

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