The Medad Theory of Jet Lag and the Peace Process

I have already blogged about this before, but now I have a bit more scientific proof.  It's the "Medad Jet Lag Theory of Failed Diplomacy".

One of my theories is that the reason for the mostly unreasonable and silly diplomatic interference of American officials with Israel's path to peace and security is...jet lag.

They get on a plane in Washington and several time zones later, with no sleep on the flight and little more during the few days they are here, and they think they have enough intelligence, sense and orderly thinking to deal with a 90+ year old conflict.

So, is it the jet lag that plays a crucial part in this?

I read this:

A study presented November 15 at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting finds that hamsters suffering extreme, chronic jet lag had about half the normal rate of new neuron birth in a part of the brain. What’s more, these animals showed deficits in learning and memory.

Jet lag poses a serious health threat, said study coauthor Erin Gibson of the University of California, Berkeley...Jet lag decreases the numbers of new neurons being born in the hippocampus by about 50 percent, the team found. Mental function suffered, too: The jet-lagged hamsters were worse at learning which of two chambers contained a desirable running wheel. Even after 28 days of a back-to-normal schedule, the formerly jet-lagged hamsters still showed learning and memory problems. The mismatch between the internal body clock and the external environment “is having a long-term effect on learning and memory,” Gibson said...

Now you know, too.  It's a real possibility.

I knew I was on to something.  If it appears logical, follow it up.

^

Wow

Lucky guy:-

I left California for Jerusalem a few hours after Christmas Day, and in short order I witnessed the excitement of Friday prayers at the Temple Mount, clusters of pilgrims chanting their way along the Via Dolorosa, dancing Jews greeting the Sabbath at the Western Wall. On the same British Airways flight down from Heathrow that I took, more than 30 years ago, Saul Bellow encountered three-hour “security exercises,” a desperate dearth of kosher food and aisles blocked by the praying faithful. This week all I faced was a day in a transit lounge, a plane with just four Hasidim but 10 ten times as many American college students, and chewable toothpaste on sale at Heathrow.

My Christmas present to myself each year is to see how much air travel can open up the world and take me to places as far from sheltered California and Japan as possible. A holy day, after all, is a day for considering everything you otherwise think too little about...Jerusalem these days is barely a day away from Santa Barbara. In 36 hours or so I moved from a society that seems to have annulled history — and even parts of reality — to a place a millennium away where the very fury of human hopes and grievances, the constant debate of this world and some other, give reality and history a moment-by-moment urgency that reminds us why the Sabbath and holidays were first called into being. I could have made the same trip at home — these days (thanks partly to air travel) a drive across most American cities will take you through most of the cultures of the world. But to move from winter to summer, from a comfortable nation to an unsettled one, overnight is to put both into startling perspective.

Couldn't help myself and I left this comment there:-

A flyer like you I can ask about my theory of the "Jet Lag Diplomacy Phenomenon". I have theorized that the muck-ups Israel suffers with visiting American Secretaries of State, from Rodgers, to Haig, to Rice and everyone in-between, including aides, advisors and adventurers-masking-as-diplomats, is that due to a possible jet-lag - well, at least I suffer it, they arrive in Israel and before they can enjoy the King David Hotel they are at it: talks with the PM, the FM, the lead of the Opposition, and others. By the time the visit of three days is over, not to mention skipping on up to Ramallah for the last decade, there are new irrational and illogical and unattainable policy positions, goals and methods - all due to a lack of proper sleep and near-total disorientation. What say you?

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UPDATE

My comment has been published.