Jeopardy is officially cited as a “trivia” game show, but there was nothing trivial about it when, days ago, the question came up directly as to where the Church of the Nativity is located, and indirectly, where Bethlehem is situated historically.
Wrong answer, as deemed by Alex Trebek and the show’s off-camera authorities, when the first contestant said Palestine, and, correct answer, when the next panelist named Israel.
The money went to that guy, who obviously knows his facts and his Bible.
From the Truth Hurts Department, we hear voices --
Certain parties are disgruntled and quite furious that it turned out that way, in Israel’s favor (on the program and in real life), and next thing you know, they’ll be demanding that Jeopardy, which premiered on NBC-TV March 30, 1964, must be boycotted, divested, condemned at the UN, and sanctioned at The Hague.
Alex Trebek, who has hosted the program since 1984, now through ABC-TV, may need to get himself a lawyer.
Only half kidding, because the Palestinian Arab hornet’s nest has been acutely stirred up. Perhaps a two-state solution. Al Jazeera gets to share half the game show’s time slot.
We have Jeopardy. The airheads have the rest of the culture. 
Sooner or later, politics comes to all of us, even when we try to steer clear of it, which is why we watch Jeopardy, millions of us.
It’s a refuge from the cacophony, wrongness and madness of politics, and so Monday to Friday, for half an hour, if you don’t mind, dear world, we get to relax and test our skills through some really tough answers and questions, and watch some really smart people prove that we are not a nation of dunces after all.
Some people went to college and came out all right. Some.
We have Jeopardy. The airheads have the rest of the culture.
Trebek never figured to be at the center of controversy. Generations grew up with him. He’s been a comforting presence; the older brother always there with a pat on the back.
He may well be the most trusted, and the most beloved public personality in America. All that, through some 36 years on the job. That’s something.
He is originally from Canada. Maybe that explains it; they turn them out polite and non-confrontational over there, eh?
Alas, his term may be coming to an end, due to poor health.
We will assume that his legacy won’t be touched by the current tempest, and that the show itself will move forward intact, since, as we noted, from March 30, 1964.
Well now, that makes Jeopardy older and more “ancient” than the “Palestinians” – doesn’t it.
They were designated as a “people” for the first time, by the Arab League, June 2, 1964, when the League approved the PLO, and an Egyptian, Arafat, as its leader.
Before that, before 1948, the Palestinians were the Jews living there, including the Jewish leadership, and that means David Ben-Gurion as well, as all the records will show, from The New York Times to the BBC. We can understand the current “Palestinians” trying so hard to concoct for themselves a history and a heritage, because they have neither.
In an earlier column, we presented the case for the Beatles, how even they preceded today’s “Palestinians” as a “people” on the world stage.
That was Feb. 7, 1964, on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town.
Other than all that, it is good to know that terrorist/Jihadist leaders are watching Jeopardy. Very good. Might learn something.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.
He wrote the worldwide book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal,” and the authoritative newsroom epic, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” followed by his coming-of-age classics, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” and, the Holocaust-to-Montreal memoir, “Escape from Mount Moriah,” for which contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com