On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
To understand the war between Israel and Hamas and its impact on the region, you have to know what's being said in private by leaders who are afraid to say those things in public.
That includes arab leaders, members of Netanyahus war cabinet, the israeli military and Gazans.
That's part of what I'm going to talk about with Greg Karlstrom, a Middle east correspondent for the Economist.
We'll also talk about why some arab leaders hate Hamas, fear Iran, and have some sympathy for Israel, although not for how Israel is waging the war.
Netanyahu doesn't have a political plan for running Gaza.
We'll talk about the consequences of that and what life is likely to be like for Gazans in the future.
Greg Kallstrom has covered the Middle east for more than a decade.
He's the author of the 2017 book how long will Israel survive the threat from within?
When we recorded our interview yesterday, he was in Dubai, where he's based.
Greg Kallstrom, welcome to Fresh Air.
Let's start with what people are saying in private but not in public.
Are you hearing anything from the israeli.
Military, what they've been saying in private for a while now?
They have actually, in the past, just in the past few days, started to say in public, and that is that the government has no strategy for this war.