War, farce, or a Persian tragedy?

Those who can't remember the past are con-demned to repeat it," said George Santayana. The line has since been folk-tongued to sound like a proverb—"Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes."

- R. PRASANNAN

Like axioms in maths, proverbs don't need proof. But Bibi Netanyahu is hell-bent on proving it. Don Trump, the joker in every pack of global crisis, is cheering him from the sidelines. Wait and watch! They'll repeat history either as a Persian tragedy or a Farsi farce.

One can forgive Don. He is ruling a country with 250 years of history—too short to learn from mistakes of the past. Worse, a car-maker once told them that history is bunk. They revere him like a Confucius or a Chanakya.

But Bibi? He is ruling a people who have memories spanning two millennia and more. Yet he is letting himself repeat a mistake he had witnessed in his neighbourhood, just two decades ago.