Nobel laureate Professor Yisrael (Robert) Aumann gave a special interview to the Jerusalem Post sister publication Maariv ahead of his 90th birthday on June 8.
The Nobel prize winner is famous for holding right wing views. When asked, he said that Israel should annex the Jordan Valley and a portion (30%) of the West Bank on July 1 as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu said he will do “and not talk it to death.”
When asked about the chance of a peace agreement with the Palestinians he said that some things should not be a matter of compromise. “The Arabs are also not flexible, they say everything belongs to them”, he argued. "We Jews should not waiver in our conviction that this is our rightful historical homeland, “dating back thousands of years.”
Aumann won the Nobel prize in 2005 for the contribution his research of Game Theory made in the field of economics.His research helped understand how seemingly irrational actions might, in reality, be rational when we take into account the situations they work with and the logic guiding them. For example, in his Nobel speech called "War and Peace," he explained how the seemingly irrational act of building enough nuclear bombs to destroy the planet is effective in preventing war because the other side can’t know if these weapons will be used or not.
Aumann joked with the reporter that until he won the prize, he worked in science. But as the prize tends to be the best sales promoter in the world, he said “I now work in sales”, referringg to the sales of his theories.He waved away the suggestion that winning was the most meaningful moment in his life. He declined to say what that one moment was and instead said that he is proud of the decision he made to move to Israel and not take on a well-paying job in the US.