Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20150321

State idea of the terrorist for peace idea is it suspends the argument for right because both people have the same right to the same land. No such thing as having a right to half of something. So the only way to proceed, and the ancient rabbis knew about this when they wrote about torts, is to divide it. We can argue about the kind of division and the terms of the division, but the principle of the division as the essential condition for an end to the conflict it seems to me conflict it seems to me indisputable. Rose remembering don keough and talking to Leon Wieseltier when we continue. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by rose additional funding provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose a young man named don keough worked for the butter Nut Coffee Company when acquired by cocacola in 1960. His life after that was never the same. He would go on to lead coke as president and chief operating officer from 1981 until he retired in 1993. During that period revenue rose from to 14 billion from 1. 9 billion and annual gain 15 annually. Don keough said i kept my head down, jumped into a creek which turned into a river which turned into a gulf and grew to an ocean. All i did was swim. He loved meeting entrepreneurs from around the world who had plans for businesses. It is a lot of people betting on the future that keeps me young. Don keough died last month at 88 after a brief bout with knew moan. I cant we look back at an appreciation of his life. Were joined by muhtar kent, father john jenkins, Timothy Shriver and warren buffett. I am pleased to have them here. Don keough was a friend of this program as well and a good friend of mine. So friends celebrate him and appreciate him this evening and so, id like to begin with you, warren. Tell me what he meant to you, because you go back further than any of us in knowing don, who became a neighbor. Yeah, don moved in right across the street from where i live now in about 1960, 1959, perhaps, and his front door was 100 feet from our front door and believe me, there was a lot of movement between those two doris. He was a wonderful friend 55 years ago and that friendship continued every day until a week or two ago. Rose here is an interview he did with me talking about buying the house next to you warren. Part of a document rii did about you. Roll tape. How close did you live to the buffetts . I cross the street. I bought a house there in 1959 a threestory brick house, paid 27,500 for it and i there was a young fellow living across the street in a big house, he paid 30,000, i think, for his. His name was warren buffett. Nobody knew who he was. He was a nice guy. I think he and susie had three kids. We had four working on five. You know i got to know him. He wasnt easy to know because he didnt you didnt see much of him but my kids did. Of course, the real story is he came across the street one day and said don i love your kids. I said i know. He said, you know since about college. Getting kids through college isnt easy. I said, warren, im working on grade school. Well get to college later. He said, ive started a little fund, people putting money into it, and if you gave me, say, 10,000, i think i could build that up into something. Well, charlie, i didnt give it to him for two reasons one i didnt have it. I could have borrowed it from my father. But i went in to mickey and said can you imagine giving 10,000 to a guy who doesnt get up and go to work in the morning . laughter that was one of the great decisions of my life. Rose if you had given him dont ask. Probably over 400 million. Were still friends today. laughter rose remember that warren . I remember very well because i worked out of my house for about six years, a little sewing room off the bedroom. Every morning when don would go off to sell coffee, his oldest daughter kathy would come over and we had a jungle gym with the slides and swings and the last thing he would see me when going to work is me pushing kathy or her pushing me. That made him a little leery to give me the 10,000, but when he came over later he asked if he could give it to me retroactively laughter rose did you ever remind him how much snifts. He seemed to do pretty well himself. Also interesting that two guys living across from each other, both living in houses about 30,000, he ends up being president of cocacola and we ended up buying a lot of stock in it. Rose and we have the c. E. O. To talk about that. You said three words to describe him everybody loved him. Thats absolutely true. How many people 88 can you make that statement about . But everybody did love him. It was intergenerational. I loved him. My two wives loved him my kids and grandkids loved him. Hoe could connect with anyone and he could connect immediately and he knew more about people and human nature when he was 20 than ive learned in 84 years. Incredible man. Rose muktar what did he mean to you. Warren was right everybody loved him and respected him. Not just the customer or truck driver or store owner, heads of government respected him. He was just a wide giant of a person. I dont think ill ever meet someone like that in my life. I think if youre really, really lucky, someone like that comes across your life once, if youre really really lucky. And thats who don was. I met him very early on, very early 80s when i joined the Cocacola Company in 1978. Ever since that time, you know we had an incredible bond and close relationship. He taught me all i knew about what i had to know. When you think of Peter Druckers book the effective executive, he wrote about don dahler. Don he wrote about don keough. Then he was much noorn that. He was a wonderful family person, incredible father and statesman and he knew he could go up and down. He could go from 50,000 feet all the way down to zero and go right back up again. So those are things that are not always learned. He would learn till the day he passed. Every single day. He would say your brain is like a sponge it keeps taking it in, and you have to open it to get more information in every day. Again, you know, when i told my life hed passed she started crying. Thats how people so loved him. Rose fair to say you wouldnt be in a position youre in without without any question that he was somebody that touched me and ive become what i am as a result of that. Rose father john jenkins . Had a close relationship with notre dame . Yes. I had been president of notre dame for ten years and his saying, stay nervous and avoid complacency, had a huge impact on me. He was very generous with resource but most importantly generous with his vision. He challenged you to be better and he had an inspirational way about him that made us better. Thats why we have near st. Patricks day one of the great iran Study Centers because don insisted on it because he was a proud irishamerican. Rose he said this Great University doesnt have a Irish Studies Program and you need one. Its the fighting irish and you dont study irish . We went to the best from zero because of don because he inspired you to do great things. Rose Special Olympics started in 1968 . I think 1968. We owe the poor decision don made with Warren Buffetts office because my mother went to him at the beginning of the Special Olympics movement and said i have about 10,000 athletes and want to grow it. He probably heard an echo of buffetts voice and said im not making this mistake twice. laughter listening people talk to don and going to his funeral, charlie the thing that struck me was how many people talked about him as a dad. This is a generation of men who grew up to be powerful in politics, business, literature and the arts they werent really known, to be honest, most of them as dads. This is a man who when you look at the full story of his life, almost everybody refers to mickey, almost everybody refers to his children and grandchildren, almost everybody alluded to the fact he was always there at the Little League game and the drama show. This is a man who somehow came through the 50s and 60s and 70s when the role of men and business was changing, when he was in one to have the most competitive businesses in the world challenged to swim in an ocean, he said, and still managed to convince everyone around him that his family was the most important thing in his life, which i find so inspiring in men today. Rose had a closing relationship with your mother . He did. He saw something about business before most people and my mom was captivated by. This he saw business had to be about values not just about bottom line. He knew he could build his business if he had people who believed in his brands and products and trusted his products and understood it was a promise and the promise wasnt just inside but all around the bottle. My mother was enormously charmed. The Special Olympics Movement Today is 5 million athletes but it would not be where it is right now were it not for the fact that one Corporate Executive who had a Global Portfolio yao owe and a giant heart saiding this something our business can believe in that will be good for human beings and this company, too. Rose the heart there as an executive in cocacola was reflected in the trips he made where he would go and see coke employees around the world and bring the heart of the company to them. Don got involved with the world of the globe in the 1980s when he really became the president and chief operating officer and, from that minute on, it was like he was the person to go the goto person for everyone in the United States of america of what is happening in the world. So quickly, how can someone just start this journey and become so quickly have that knowledge, have that inspired knowledge . And he basically always had wisdom that he was willing to share with everyone. And now the thing is, so, there wasnt a period of time when after he retired, i would meet Prime Minister of poland the president of the czech republic, Prime Ministers all across the world. The Prime Minister from austria. How is don keough . They wouldnt say hows business hows everything . How is don keough, please give him my best years after he retired. Still happens today. And we got letters from all kinds of statesmen that are in their 80s, 80s, 90s, retired say we just heard our condolences. And its very unusual. Its the man. Its who he is. Rose what was the relationship and partnership he had with roberto so that they became, as some have said, a a perfect combination . They were a perfect parentship. Ive seen probably three or four partnerships in business that stand out from all the rest and certainly when roberto and don combined their strengths it really was a case of two plus two equaling a lot more than four. They were complementary to each other in an extraordinary way and neither would have achieved the success they did without the other one, but don was indispensable to roberto. I watched that for many years. Let me tell you one story that i feel i owe it to don to tell this because he never talked about it, but we were up in sun valley one time and we were playing a golf match against his son clark and my soninlaw allen, and we really wanted to beat these young guys. We were three down, and i forget whether it was the fifth or sixth hole, but we were three down and it was starting very badly. We got to this par 3 and i said, don, the only way were going to turn the tide is if you knock this in, and he actually hit a hole in one at that point, and totally destroyed these kids. We went on to win the match. laughter don never told that story but you can confirm it with clark and allen. Rose theres always the story he told me about discovering your investment in cocacola that somehow roberto may have asked don, somebodys buying our stock whats going on . And he said to roberto, let me make a phone call, i know a guy. And he called you up to say well, we bought about 6 of the company and i dont like anybody to know when were buying because it causes the price to go up, so i didnt tell anybody. All of a sudden, the phone rang and i picked up the phone and i can remember his exact records, he said warren, you wouldnt be buying a share or two of cocacola stock, would you . laughter and the cat was out of the bag. Rose they bought a lot of shares, did they, muktar . laughter theres also the sense of understanding the company and its brand. No one was a better communicator of what the brand meant and what it meant to him and which he talked about. He said i define my role to protect and enhance the trademark of the company. He would always say, i have a very simple job. All i do is go in every morning, wherever i go to, working for the Cocacola Company and its bottlers, and i polish the brand a little more each day. Thats what he would say and thats what he did. And he did it so masterfully there was nobody living that personified the brand better than don until he passed away last month. There was just no one that came close. Thats why we you know, we named our Current Leadership Academy at the Cocacola Company the don keough leadership academy. Rose teaching Young Leaders of the company . Teaching Young Leaders of the company, young entrepreneurs and leaders about don his values, his wisdom, wit, humbleness and his way of Clear Communication and how he would set priorities. It would just come to naturally to him. Rose one of the things he said, that success made him nervous because it scared him that there would be arrogance and complacency. That was his theme. And i heard that many, many times from him. Stay nervous is what he told me frequently, and good advice. A brand like coke, its easy to ride on that or notre dame but he was always pushing for more. He brought the same discipline to tissue of the to the issue of the not for profit sector. In the 70s, he wanted to do something good for people and the the Cocacola Company, but he was clever. He bought 100000 tshirts for about 1. 50 each and that summer every single local Special Olympics event over the United States, about 1,000 tshirts were distributed and every single volunteer became an ambassador. He polished the brand 100,000 times a day those tshirts were missed. Hes message was well do more next year. You have to grow this thing. When i went to see him in my 30s looking for advice from him as so many did, his advice is how do you grow this thing, bring it to china, india make a difference, talk to the folks in atlanta. He always said, dont take too much of their time, he said, just ask them for what they need and get the hell out of the way. Im trying to follow that advice not always successful laughter rose lets talk about new coke, he was part of that disaster. He said were not so smart to have thought we were too perfect or too dumb not toe recognize the mistake. Its also having the courage to rather than watch things happen, take destiny into your hands and have the courage. He always used to say where theres no risk there niece reward. I always repeat that all the time. So, yes not everything that you do has to work, but making decisions and standing behind those decisions and being willing to admit that something is not working and go and change, have the flexibility, perfect example of that. And the brand and the company got stronger and better as a result of all of that put together. Thats why he would say to you, you know, we didnt do it on purpose. Were not as stupid or were not as clever as all of that seems. And then he was exactly, you know, talking about how he felt. Rose warren, did he talk to you about that decision at the time . You were on the board by the way. I wasnt on the board at that time. Rose okay. In fact, none of us were there at that time. laughter rose you dont know anybody who was there i was out of communication. But the one thing he did tell me he was talking to me about it afterwards, and he said, when those letters started arriving at headquarters addressed to supreme idiot and they brought them to my desk i started to get the idea wed lost a Little Something here. laughter knee rose heres don talking about that very decision with me at this table. Here it is. Our u. S. Business has had some challenges. A new formulation was built. Roberto had said, from the day we started he said everythings up for grabs every day. Dont be afraid to bring anything in. So a group of our technicians and u. S. Management developed what they thought was a formulation that was going to take over the world. Now you know, we sat there at the Corporate Headquarters or sort of isolating ourselves a little bit and saying maybe it would go away, but they kept doing more taste tests, which i covered in two or three commandments, they got a lot of outside experts and sooner or later these tell violation nationwide, i think that night. The simple fact is that all of the time and money and skill poured into Consumer Research on the new cocacola could not measure or reveal the depth and abiding emotional attachment to original cocacola feltly so many people. They said they wanted the original taste of cocacola back and they wanted it soon. I was based overseas at that time, but that night, it was first news on all three anchors, and he was there in person and talking about it to consumers, and thats the way to handle Something Like that. The perfect example of how he would go out and handle Something Like that. You know, not everything has to work. Stand behind your decisions and know when youve made a mistake and change it. Rose i was told a story that some woman called him up and got through to him and said how could you have destroyed cocacola because it meant so much to me. He said, when was the last time you had cocacola. She said, 20 years. He said why are you so concerned . She said because youre destroying my youth. He said that coke meant more to her than just the drink, it was memory. The people own the brand and taking it away from them, they found out how important that brand was to people. Just like that woman who hadnt had one in 20 years. But don was in touch with people. They may have made a mistake there temporarily, but he could feel what people were feeling. He didnt have to put it into words. He just had that ability to just connect with you in all ways. That book he wrote, i dont know whether youre going to get to that. Rose go ahead. Well, we have a group that met every two years since 1968. We call graham group. Actually, kaye and don graham were entered tom murphy and bill gates were in it, and every time we met the group wanted to hear don speak. So i kind of wanted to rotate things but they didnt want me to rotate things. They wanted to hear don. So he gave the key points in that as a talk one time and the crowd went wild. So we all suggested to them you have to put it in a book and he did and the world was better for it. Rose i repeat that now because herbert alan and i were talking about it. He said don combined the best values of a great teacher and great listener. He always left with you wanting more. He had the unusual combination of needing to be needed but never needing to be recognized. I heard the speech at sun valley which became the basis for the book and the book was released in 2008 and was called the Ten Commandments for business failure. Ten things you can do for business failure and they are quit taking risks being flexible, isolate yourself, assume infallibility play the game close to the foul line, dont take time to think, pull all your faith in experts, love your bureaucracy, send mixed messages and be a friend of the future. That summed him up did it not . Thats 100 . It was such a great way to present it too, because everybodys got these ten rules for success, but he got i heard it in sun valley and with our group, i mean, he just had that way of presenting things that grab you in the first minute and you would hope he wouldnt stop talking, it was so good. Rose he wrote a letter to you when your mother died. He did. He was of an era where there were great irishamericans, not just because they were irish, but because there was a certain sense of faith that underpinned their lives. Don was tough raucous funny wise, took risks, but he had a deep faith. I think thats what connected him to my mother. Whenever he would see her and she wasnt a touchy kind of person, he would always hold her hand. And i never forget it because no one did that. I mean my father didnt hold her hand. I mean, she wasnt that kind of girl, you know . Rose but don did. Don did. Hed reach across and hold her hand and look at her in the eye and say, eunice. And there was an energetic connection there that i think he knew that she brought something to him that was important to his life not a great huge University Like notre dame and a powerful center for hiring education, but these little humble people she represented also meant something dear to him and she as their representative they formed a beautiful friendship. Rose heres what he said about notre dame vs. Nebraska. Role tape. What happened when they were playing the university of nebraska . Well, i have to tell you the truth, i was kind of pulling for notre dame. Rose of course you were. laughter warren is one of the great fans of the university of nebraska. Weve seen a couple of those games together and nebraska won both of them. laughter rose so the two of you were there rooting for the opposite teams . Charlie, i have to tell you, don broadcast nebraska football at the very beginning of television when there was only one television station in omaha and they paid 25,000 for the rights, so he actually broadcast the game. He had a 15minute program on the local tv station at the time. As part of the noon hour show, we have 15 minutes where we take a little coffee and meet a lot of interesting people. And he was followed by Johnny Carson who was just beginning his career. They lived in the statement apartment house. When i would see don 30 or 40 years later at a coke meeting, he would say whatever happened to the carson fellow . laughter rose what were his passions other than cocacola friendship and notre dame . Thats a pretty good list right there. Rose and Special Olympics, too. His family and friends. He for five years after he had oral cancer he made every single one of Berkshire Hathaways directors meetings, and after every one of them where eight or nine managers would present, every one of them would get an individualized note that meant something to them. I mean, he really was analyzing the business they were in where he might be helpful and these were not form letters. Every single one of them would get a message that meant something to them specifically. And that went on year after year after year after year when he could not eat a meal or anything of the sort. He came and participated. Just anything he did, he did 100 . Rose he was on the board until what . Until a couple of years ago, and then he retired from the board and stayed on as adviser to the board until he passed away. You know, to warrens point about the intellect that he put into the letter i kept every single letter that he has written to me over the last 30 years and there would be one letter that came from him always on st. Patricks day, but i obviously received many other letters and i put them all in a file and i kind of opened that file and read through that file, and i had to hold my breath because it is so current whatever was written 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, has incredible relevance and meaning today. And its just theyre just beautiful words put together by a deep, strong intellect and passion. Rose okay. Heres picture with you muktar and don meeting the australian minister, this is 1992. You can see that picture in a moment. Yeah, that was the Prime Minister of austria for chancellor of austria for ten years from 86 to 96 and there we are opening our office for eastern and central and southern europe, and don visited us. I traveled with don a lot and met with a lot of dignitaries. As i said earlier, it was just a bond, like what tim said about the bond between Eunice Shriver and himself. The eyes would lock and there was a deep intellect humor wit, understanding, ability to listen to people and contribute. So whether its the chancellor of austria, president s all around they would just care about the person and remember even if it was one meeting. Rose let me get a final word from each of you tim, as we remember and appreciate a friend. I think the great thing charlie about don is that where business is going today you see brands all over the world trying to find ways to embody big values to capture the power of delivering the product and the Value Proposition at the same time, about being something more something bigger and don knew that 40 years ago and created the worlds most powerful brand because he linked it with deep value because what he brought to individuals, he brought to the company. There will be Business Leaders for the next 20 or 30 years who would do well to study what don keough believed deeply is the heart and soul of the business is as important as operation and efficiencies. Rose father jenkins. I build on what tim said. Don, you look for a technique or a trick he did. It was don. It was who he was the values he lived by and the way he connected with people as muktar said in a deep level, that gave him the power of being a great leader. It wasnt a gimmick. It was don. Thats what he taught me. He was the most special person who came through my life and i will always remember him and love him for that and what he did to make everyone he touched a better person. Rose warren, final word. Everybody loved him and they were 100 right. Rose for all of you who came this evening to appreciate don, thank you so much. For all who knew him all who knew of him and all who wished they had known him, for all those whose lives he touched, we remember him and our thoughts and sympathy are with his wife and daughters his sons, 18 grandchildren and two great grandchildren, a remarkable man who understood the power of friendship. We remember don keough tonight. Rose Leon Wieseltier is here, former literary editor of the new republic, steered the magazines back through 30 years. He resigned last december due to managerial changes and since joined the atlantic as a contributing editor and critic. James bennett said for a generation of leaders and writers, leon defined standards for piercing criticism culture and society and joined the brookings institution. I am very very pleased to have him back at this table. I consider him a great friend and it is my honor to have his friendship. Good to be here charlie. Rose so lets talk about israel first. I just read a bbc account of an interview, i think probably with it was on msnbs Andrea Mitchell where he said yeah, its time to take it back. Rose in the end he said, thats a good thing. I havent read the interview but i read the bbcs account of it that they have to figure a way to get to a good twostate solution. First of ail, thats not what he said when he summoned the base before the election. He delegit mated the twostate solution which is about the most dangerous thing anybody can do in terms of prospect of peace and reconciliation. As soon as he won, i said to someone were ten minutes away from seeing whether he is for the twostate solution. I think he treats the subject with total cynicism and i think whether he is or isnt for the twostate solution whether the bbc is the real netanyahu whatever it is, hes done nothing in his policies to advance the prospects of the twostate solution. Personally i mean, i dont like being played for a fool, and i dont know which what to believe when it comes to him. My own sense is that he is not capable of presiding over the establishment of the palestinian state which is one of the reason his baits supports him and i think that is rose you dont think hes capable . I dont think hes capable i dont think abbas right now is capable of ebeing over a palestinian state either. It worries me theres not a palestinian partner and netanyahu is squandering opportunity for a deal what worries me is when neither side wants a twostate solution israel is pursuing policies to make that solution even more difficult. Rose heres what he said in this interview, i dont want a onestate solution. I want a sustainable peaceful twostate solution but for that circumstances have to change. He said i never changed my speech six years ago calling for a demilitarized palestinian state that recognized the jewish state. What changed is the reality. Hes the Prime Minister of israel. Hes in a position to change some of the circumstances he wish would change. It isnt going to be easy. I dont believe hes ever going to seriously cut back on the settlement program. I think the settlements are the most momentous blunder in israels history. I think the palestinian population that lives where it lives is going to continue to live where it lives and israel is going to have to live with it and these are israels neighbors. Whether israel likes it or not. Anything that poisons or further poisons relations with the Palestinian Community is counterproductive to the interests of the state of israel. Unless you believe that one state is tenable for the jews of israel, but one state will not be greater israel, it will be greater palestine. It will mark the end of the jewish state. Rose if theres one state, it will be greater palestine . It will be, for demographic reasons, not greater israel. Anybody who cares about the survival of israel must support anything that could be done to bring about the twostate solution. I understand weve waited decades for it. There are problems in life we dont know the solution to and decades go by and we bang our heads against the wall. This problem weve known the solution to for many decades, we just cant figure out a way to get there. Rose two things netanyahu made a point of. One he said a Sticking Point is abbas refused to recognize israel as a jewish state. This is an argument the Prime Minister made over the past three or four years but not before that. I dont remember the exact year netanyahu introduced this as another standard. Rose another negotiating tool. Another obstacle that had to be introduced against progress in the socalled peace process. Rose what does he mean . He wants the palestinians to declare the legitimacy of israel as a jewish state. I do, too. I would have to say i would not hold the future of the jewish state or Palestinian Community to such a declaration because a street where where palestine agreed to live in peace with israel side by side rose and not recognize israel as a jewish state . No, israel is a jewish state. But again every time the argument goes back to the question of right, the discussion shuts down. The beauty of the partition idea of the territory idea of the twostate idea of the territories for peace idea is it suspends the arguments for rights because both people have the right to the same land. There is no such thing as having a right to half of something. So the only way to proceed and the an chen rabbis knew this when they wrote about torts, the only way to proceed is to divide it. We can argue about the kind of division and the terms of the division and so on, but the prince the of the division has the essential condition for an end to the conflict seems to me indisputable. Rose do you believe its possible for palestinians and israelis to live side by side in peace or do you believe that it is possible for there to be circumstances that can get beyond their inability to live side by side in peace . There is no question in my mind that if and when a deal is made between israel and palestine there will be radical palestinians, militants who will turn to violence. Rose right. Ight . When the good friday agreement was made in ireland and finally that miracle was wrought you may recall when the i. R. A. Decided to negotiate there appeared an Organization Called the real i. R. A. The real i. R. A. Became a security problem not a political or strategic problem, because the communities had agreed to reconcile. So, yes there will be a problem of violence. The prestige of religious violence in the muslim world right now is unfortunately very high and there are currents in the muslim world all around israel right now that are deeply violent, and this is something that israel has to live with now and had to live with then. But the basic principle that the two communities for reasons of selfinterest but also for moral reasons, have to reconcile and finally put an end to this conflict seems, as i say, indisputable to me. I dont think its going to happen now and may not happen in my lifetime snoo thats the opinion of the majority of Israeli Citizens . I dont know. I think it depends how you ask the question. Rose out of fear what he was able to do is make the argument israel is most secure with me . Israels Security Policy right now as far as i can tell consists in a wall and war every two or three years. You know, the wall works, but its not the best symbol of what we want and the wars we know about the problem with these wars. I think that netanyahu won this election ugly. He won it ugly. He debased his country with some of his rhetoric, especially with what he said about the arab citizens. Rose so should the Israeli Government demand that the Palestinian Authority not deal with hamas and not make a coalition with hamas . I think the Israeli Government rose or did they say, you know, youve got these terrible elements there and its up to you to control them if you want to present yourself as they view the hamas . I think that the problem of hamas is something that the p. A. And now the egyptians together have got to find a solution to. I dont think israel should deal with hamas even though there were informal contacts and things. Rose you dont . No, i dont. I think there are limits. No, i dont. I think that an organization that regularly theres no indication on the side of hamas that theyre prepared to deal with their enemy. If theres some evidence sure butten i dont see the evidence. The Palestinian Community insofar as i understand it but i dont speaker ray bick its a very troubled community politically. Its divided. There is a lot of violence. They have a lot of inhouse business to take care of which is one of the reasons i dont expect there to be a deal in the short term. My main tern is that in my main concern is in the absence of a deal the situation with israel and the palestinians not get further poisoned and the kind of rhetoric netanyahu used to clinch this election, its not going to be forgotten. He may take it back, but rose Jeffery Goldberg was here last night to talk about the election and i said did netanyahu win or herzog lose . Did herzog present an argument to create a resonance with the israeli people that would make a difference . Did he make a case for the twostate resolution and that he had a case for security . I think they did as good as they can and better than they have in a long time. Rose i think they principally appealed to economic issues. They did that, thats right. Rose they did not make the case on the security. Well, they talked about it but it was clear in the election that in the campaign that more israelis cared about domestic issues, about issues of social justice and economic rose then why did netanyahu prevail . Because netanyahus base, there was also bennetts parties and other parties, and the reason bennett didnt do as well is he summoned back some of the zealots and when they heard some of the things he was saying im not surprised they decided to vote for him. Rose the Obama Administration says netanyahus proposals will get nowhere and all he will be left with are military orgs. Im not even sure there will be a military option. I dont believe the obama deal will get us anywhere either. I think when netanyahu said a deal that was conditional upon a recognition of the nature of the Iranian Regimes Foreign Policy as far as support of terrorism and so on is the only kind of deal there should be, im actually quite sympathetic to that. Rose sympathetic to to what he said in congress about linking the deal to some recognition of what sort of regime there is in tehran. I mean, the Obama Administration frequently seems to forget that this is a tyrannical theocratic criminal regime. There is no reason whatsoever to trust it on this question. There is no evidence whatsoever that the iranians have made any strategic decision to renounce a nuclear capability. You know, the deal thats now being discussed consists in a diminishment of the iranian capability for a period of ten years and the Obama Administration sometimes talks about it in the tones of a grand bargain so that iran will then become a flourishing Regional Power. Who on earth wants this regime to become a flourishing Regional Power . Anybody who does anything to legit mate or prop up the regime in tehran is an enemy of iran is an enemy of iran and the only solution that will eventually be, its clock whose ticking slower than the Nuclear Clock, is an rival of an accountable government. Rose when . The streets of iran erupted with a democratic rebellion and the United States basically turned its back on them. Shaper shouting obamas name. I understand that the Nuclear Clock is ticking more quickly than the democracy clock in iran. Rose but it is a question, some would argue everybody that i know believes that an essential ten net of any agreement has to be inspections because the likelihood of a Nuclear Capacity from iran will probably come not from a count of centrifuges but covertly. The problem is there were inspections and we were twice surprised. They lie. I think that they lie. And i think that the obvious objective of the Iranian Regime in these Nuclear Negotiations is relief from sanctions and they are prepared it seems if they are prepared, but the most they seem prepared to do is to restrain their Nuclear Capabilities for a limited period of time so as to get relief from the sanctions. That seems to be their strategic objective, and the only reason theyre there is because of the sanctions, as far as i can tell. Rose the only reason theyve come to the table. Yeah. Rose let me turn back to israel. What else it that you study the most . What is it about israel and its history that you love the most . What is it that makes israel and different groups in israel honor you so . Israel is a genuinely loveable and admirable place in many ways. One of the reasons i was so disgusted by some of the things netanyahu said at the end of the campaign is that they paint a picture of a country that is much nastier and ologier than the and uglier than the country of israel in fact is. Israel has a somewhat dysfunctional political system. Israel, however is a genuine democracy. Israel may commit Human Rights Violations but has scores of its own human Rights Groups holding it to account. Israel is a society that is bursting bursting with spirit, culture and life. Israel is a genuinely admirable place in many ways but israel is being tested because it has this problem. Rose that it cant deal with the palestinians. Yeah. Look, you know a democracy is tested democracies are tested by many things. Israel has a free press. Israel has a wildly independent judiciary. Israel has a wildly free political system. Israel is not doing so well by one of the orthotests of a democracy which is National Democracy which is how it treats its minorities. Rose my question was broader than that, not just contemporary israel, what you love about it. It is about israel and its cultural tradition and religious tradition. I mean you are receiving a huge prize for your writings and comprehension and eloquent testimony to that part of the heritage of israel. The story of the jewish people is one of the great human stories, and its moral and emotional force is much greater than anything ethnic or religious. And one of the great moments in that human story was that, in the aftermath, on the day after the jewish people suffered the most unimaginably horrific destruction possible, the jewish revived itself in a National Sovereign state, and in a more moving way and this happened before the destruction of israel, the jewish people invented a whole new language for itself. The story of modern hebrew is one of the most stirring cultural stories ive ever heard, and it is one of my great complaints against american jewery who are virtually unlettered in hebrew is they deny themselves the greatest tradition because of their ill literacy. As a jew i live mostly in hebrew because we have a language and thats the air and culture a people breathes. I read and speak and write in hebrew. Im stirred by this. The spiritual, literary culture resources of this language and more generally of the jewish story seem immeasurable to me. So ive always regarded it as a great honor who have been born a jew. It was an accident of birth. Im jealous of converts because they made a decision. I didnt have to make a decision. It was an accident of birth but ive always regarded it as a very lucky accident of birth. Of course, all accidents of birth, you have to embeau them with an inner necessity, you have to come to possess them. Not everything that is given is received and it isnt received until you agree to receive it. But for all these reasons it has been one of the great measures of my great pleasures of my life. Not just one of the great solemn intellectual obligations to a to equip myself well when it comes to my people. Rose this is part one of two with leon. When we come back later on another day well talk about the new republic where he spent 30 years of his life. It is not part of his life now except in memory and we will talk about where he goes from here. Thats part two of conversation with Leon Wieseltier. For more about this program and earlier episodes visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by the Coca Cola Company supporting this Program Since 2002. And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. This is nightly Business Report with tyler mathise sue herera. Rally. Stocks take off capping a strong week for equities but its the nasdaq. Glimmer of hope. The experimental drug thats showing promise in the fight against alzheimers. Our market monitor no matter what. All that and more for nightly Business Report, friday march 20th. Going in spring fever came to wall street today. Dow jones industrial average