5 Feet of Fury

Terrible: Barry Rubin, tireless champion of Israel and the West, passes away

More here.

IsraellyCool writes:

Having met online at least a year before making Aliyah, we met up in person in Israel. Barry was an academic who loved to learn and listen. A chat over lunch with Barry was never an academic lecture, it was always an exchange with the feeling that all views could be changed or moved with persuasive arguments. I will always remember him apologising profusely before answering his mobile phone as we ate in a café round the corner from his home in Tel Aviv. This was what I overheard:

“Ahh hello Ambassador, no, sorry, now is not a good time, I’m in a meeting, can I get back to you? Yes, certainly thank you.”

Bumping an Ambassador is surefire way to make your lunch companion feel more important than they really are.