From: Noam Chomsky Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 6:24 PM To: Jeffrey E. Subject: RE: Re: Forty years ago, Israel was one of the most admired countries in the world. Now it is most disliked. Forty years ago it was pretty clear, as I wrote at the time (and I was far from alone), that those who call themselves "supporters of Israel" are in fact supporters of its moral degeneration, international isolation, constant conflict and security problems, and maybe worse. So it has occurred. Israel even now has an official whose task is to deal with international isolation. Israelis like to attribute all this to anti-Semitism, which hasn't changed in the past 40 years. Or to appeal to "we have no negotiating partner," which won't wash. The problem is not Netanyahu. The policies and problems are much deeper. The crucial question is how long and how far will Israel proceed on the course to self-destruction. A lot of work in AI, neural network theory, "Big Data and statistics," etc., is as you describe — mimicking behavior (which I don't even find amazing or particularly interesting). But I think you underestimate the theoretical insights and explanations, such as the few I mentioned in the papers I sent, the theories that yield explanations for such surprising phenomena as rigidity and structure-dependence, with their far-reaching consequences. Those I think are the kinds of results that are rarely found outside the hard sciences. They don't mimic behavior, but explain fundamental properties of cognitive processes that enter into behavior, of course indirectly. And there's a lot more like it. From: Jeffrey E. [mailto:jeevacation@gmailcomj Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 6:43 AM To: Noam Chomsky Subject: Re: Re: 1.do you have any specific questions for him? he thinks its not going in the right direction. ie. bibi, not strong enough to make tough decisions. . ehud trusts hamas more than abbas. I know you dont like telephones but we could set up a text exc