By Barry Rubin
My article, “The Unbearable Lightness of Mainstream Thinking on Israel-Palestinian Issues,” came out too early to include this howler from Tom Friedman. We should remember that Friedman is highly regarded in certain circles. Yet his columns are often laughable in terms of the actual Middle East. Consider this passage giving his proposal for a compromise at the UN:
“Each side would get something vital provided it gives the other what it wants. The Palestinians would gain recognition of statehood and U.N. membership, within provisional boundaries, with Israel and America voting in favor. And the Israelis would get formal U.N. recognition as a Jewish state — with the Palestinians and Arabs voting in favor.”
Now, can Friedman deliver the Palestinian, Arab, (and Muslim-majority state) votes for formal UN recognition of Israel as a Jewish state? Of course not. It reminds me of how President Barack Obama promised Israel in 2009 that in exchange for Israeli concessions he would deliver Arab ones. He totally failed, getting turned down by every Arab country.
They wouldn’t vote for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state because a Jewish state is not to be allowed in the Middle East since this is supposed to be exclusively Muslim and/or Arab territory. Some are totally against Israel’s existence, others could accept it in practice but not with their official approval of its existence and its definition as Jewish. And of course the Palestinian Authority and Fatah–obviously not Hamas–would never accept the idea of Israel as a Jewish state even in exchange for a West Bank-Gaza Strip state with its capital in east Jerusalem and its borders those of the pre-1967 variety.
Friedman could not get the leader of a single Arab state to pledge such a deal. So when he presents this to his readers as a way of solving the conflict he is lying. Yet this is the daily diet served up in terms of Middle East analysis.
Again, even in exchange for an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with its capital including all of east Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority would NOT:
–Give up a demand for a “right of return” of all Palestinians who wanted to going to live in Israel.
–Accept Israel as a Jewish state.
–Agree to end the conflict forever and formally drop all further demands on Israel.
I can think of more items to add to this list but those three are for certain. Notice by the way that all of these fantasies have the same theme: If Israel only takes more risks and makes more concessions, peace is (easily) possible. The Arabs and Palestinians are always presented as being ready to make concessions they would never dream of making. Then because Israel won’t fall for this nonsense and has already experienced several times over the fact that these things don’t work, it is presented as being against peace, intransigent, or not understanding its own true interests.
So let’s ask these people to stop lying or at least speaking from ignorance. If they refuse to do that, can’t they at least allow those who see that the emperor’s analysts have no clothes to have equal space and try (although they would fail) to answer the serious arguments to be made about these issues?
This Friedman form of logic and lunacy is the sort of uninformed and arrogant garbage that seems to inform the Middle East policies of Barack Obama and that is why it is important to debunk it.
Unfortunately, this sort of muddled thinking is the not just the norm in the Obama administration, it is considered to be truly intelligent and thought out wisdom, even though it is totally at odds with both Israeli and Palestinian reality.
‘Must agree with Ken Besig that Friedman’s form of logic in uninformed and arrogant. However, don’t believe for a minute that the thinking of Obama’s administration is “muddled.” They know exactly what they want to do and make no secret about it.
HOwever, I hope that all those “muddled” Jews in the USA who voted for Obama, and bear a great deal of the responsibility for getting him into office, know better the next time. He is no friend of Jews or of Israel!
Friedman has been wrong about so many things, it astounds me that anyone even bothers to read his columns anymore
Mr. Friedman presents his views as though they were fair and balanced instead of being slanted, twisted and pro-Palestinian. He’s not honest.
It always astounds me as to why countries are trying to destroy little Israel. All the countries around Israel are much bigger, and yet the fight seems to never end. It seems that none of the countries around understand that Israel is God’s land and whoever tries to destroy the Jews is going to give an account to Him. I wouldn’t want to be ‘wearing any of those shoes’. God gave that land to the Jews, and I wouldn’t want to be responsible for fighting it. The end is surely at hand, and we all need to be ready and not found fighting Almighty God.
“So let’s ask these people to stop lying or at least speaking from ignorance. If they refuse to do that, can’t they at least allow those who see that the emperor’s analysts have no clothes to have equal space and try (although they would fail) to answer the serious arguments to be made about these issues?”
We can ask, but these people will never volutarily give up their monopoly in the media and education. It’s power, political power. In a democracy those who have the power to shape public opinion are more in charge than the politician. Why would they lend their platform to their adversaries when they can use it to ridicule and demonize them? The only way to go about it is to cancel subscriptions and promote the alternatives directly to the people, the way Internet businesses are promoted, except we are millions of people who can do it for free. Losing money is the only language they might understand. Though they are already losing, so far with no effect on the quality of their journalism.
Of course, we can try writing letters to the various media outlets. They should get thousands of emails and letters every month telling them we want to hear the other side of the debate, recommending names and telling them we’ll cancel our subscription if they continue to behave like Pravda.