In the early part of the last decade, a Pakistani tennis player teamed with an Israeli. They were doubles partners. One of the players received threats from his home country. Which player was that?

Answer: Not the Israeli.

At the recent Miss Universe pageant, there was a “controversy,” a “kerfuffle,” involving Miss Lebanon and Miss Israel. Here’s what happened.

Miss Israel snapped a photo of herself, along with three other contestants, including Miss Lebanon. The picture appeared on the Internet. Was there a hue and cry in Israel? Ha ha.

In Lebanon, people called for their girl to be stripped of her title — because she had appeared in a photo with Miss Israel. The Lebanese government launched an investigation. This was serious business, too.

In 1993, the government stripped Miss Lebanon of her title for exactly the same offense: appearing in a photo with Miss Israel. Lebanon forbids its beauty queens to have contacts with Israelis.

The Jews have the worst kind of cooties imaginable.

The current Miss Lebanon apologized profusely. She said that Miss Israel sabotaged her, taking a photo that included her against her will. It was a plot, you see — another one.

Across the world, the media played this as a tiff in tiaras — kind of a charming girl-on-girl spat. But no: This was just one more manifestation of the refusal of many people in the world to get along with Israelis as fellow human beings.

Israel is not a perfect country. It is a human country. But when you size up the Arab-Israeli conflict, think of incidents like the threats to the Pakistani tennis player, or the pressure on Miss Lebanon. In other words, think of the insane hatred that Israel has to contend with.

We are told that the Arab-Israeli conflict is complicated, and to a degree it is. But it boils down to this: Will the Arabs coexist with the Jews or not? Yes or no? That fundamental question has never changed, since 1947.

‐There is a game I like to play, and the headline over this article has given me the latest opportunity: “Arab lawmakers shake up Israeli politics with historic union.”

Try to imagine the headline “Jewish lawmakers shake up Lebanese [or Egyptian or Syrian or Jordanian, etc.] politics with historic union.”

This tells us something about the nature of Israel, the nature of Arab states, and the reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

‐I found this story very interesting: At the time of the recent terror attacks in France, Frédéric Chaslin was conducting the Israeli Opera. Chaslin is a Frenchman. He asked to say a few words before a performance and conduct “Hatikva,” the Israeli national anthem. Management said no. So the conductor walked.

I understand Maestro Chaslin real well. (I might note that he is the son of Holocaust survivors.) But I also understand the management of the house — which said,

The Israeli Opera is pained by tragedy and its aftermath, and its heart is with the French nation and Jewish community. For the 30 years that the opera has been in operation, it has insisted on maintaining its routine even on the painful days of dozens of terror attacks and during wars. This is the way of the opera — not to allow terror to win and disturb the routine of our lives.

In view of “the complex reality we live in,” said management, it would be necessary to “sing ‘Hatikva’ nearly every day.”

Yes, yes, and yes. (I have drawn from this news article, by the way.)

I thought of Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister of Canada. When he assumed office, he stopped the practice of lowering flags whenever a Canadian was killed in Afghanistan. His reasoning was, There is a war on, and war brings casualties. The dead can be remembered on Remembrance Day. The armed forces should not be sentimentalized.

(I wrote about this in a profile of Harper, here.)

In the United States, I think we are too quick to lower flags. There is always something bad that has gone on — always. I think flags should be lowered when some venerable statesman dies in bed. But when one of ours has been killed — keep the flags high and proud, and keep fighting.

I guess I mean that as a general principle (very general) or feeling. I am not enunciating a law. You understand what I mean.

‐My entire life, I have seen this play out: Some conservative politician uses a pop song at some event. The pop singer or group is on the left, of course. And said singer or group objects, loudly. This is so tiresome. You see this story every couple of years or so.

The latest iteration involved Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. At an Iowa conclave, he walked out to a song from a Celtic punk band. (For details, go here.) The band said, “Please stop using our music in any way. We literally hate you!!!” Not even two exclamation points would do: It had to be three.

I thought of David Cameron, the British prime minister, who handled a similar situation brilliantly. Evidently, he liked a particular band. And the band said the PM was not allowed to like it. One of the guys said, “I forbid you to like it.”

So, a Labour MP brought this up during Prime Minister’s Questions. She taunted Cameron about the band and its reaction to him. The PM responded with cool, nonchalance, and wit — as you can see here.

‐I know it seems like President Obama is in his last days. But do you realize he has two full years left to go? Do you know how much damage he can do in that time? It’s an eternity, really.

‐A month and a half ago, I wrote about a high school in the Bay Area. I have dear friends whose sons go to school there. The school was subjecting kids as young as 13 to pretty gross and twisted sex ed.

Well, here is the latest: The sex-ed teachers are Planned Parenthood employees. One of them leads a “pleasure workshop” at a porn store called “Good Vibrations.” Another styles herself a “pleasure activist” and attends porn conferences.

Read about it here. And don’t forget: The parents who complain or are worried are just stuffy repressed white Christians who want to turn back the clock to the days of the Eisenhower Oppression.

‐They are not nearly as hip as some people in Sweden. Get this: “In socially liberal Sweden, an educational video for children featuring dancing genitals has become an online hit — and even drawn criticism for not being progressive enough.”

Yes. You can read the full story here. And why is the video not “progressive” enough? Well, some Swedes “said portraying the penis with a mustache and the vagina with long eyelashes reinforced gender stereotypes.”

The jihadists must look at us in the West and think we’re the easiest prey in the world.

‐Speaking of things that are screwy: The Big Ten conference has 14 members. I was reading an article the other day that said that a certain team was “11th in the Big Ten” in some category or other. That makes you stop and think.

My grandfather would joke that he was 13th chair in the Wisner School Orchestra — which only had 12 chairs.

‐A couple of weeks ago, I had occasion to listen to this old recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy. The album contained two works of Copland: Appalachian Spring and Billy the Kid. One of the items decorating the album, naturally enough, was a pistol.

I wondered: Would that be allowed today?

How about this? It is a classic recording of Weber’s opera Der Freischütz (which means “The Freelance Shooter,” basically). Would that cover be permitted today? The opera itself is problematic: It has both guns and Christianity in it!

Anyway . . .

‐I enjoyed something in this obit of Wendell Ford, the old Kentucky senator. “When Mr. Ford announced in 1997 that he would not run for a fifth term the next year, he cited the difficulty of fund-raising as an important reason. ‘I detest the idea of having to raise $5 million for a job that pays $133,000 a year,’ he said.”

I’m thinking I’d do the job — for any state that would have me — for $125K.

See you!