Tom Friedman vs. Israel
Two weeks ago, columnist Thomas Friedman created a controversy in his column “Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir“ when he wrote:
I sure hope that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.
By using language evoking antisemitic imagery of Israel “owning” Congress, Friedman seemed to step over a line. In an effort to control the damage of his ill-advised language, Friedman defended himself to Gary Rosenblatt of the The Jewish Week. At the end of the article Rosenblatt wrote:
Friedman has often written of his support for the State of Israel, despite his sometimes sharp criticism of Jerusalem’s policies.
Last year Bradley Burston of Ha’aretz quoted Friedman:
“Israel doesn’t have to worry about me,” Friedman had stressed early in the interview. “At the end of the day, Israel will have my support — it had me at hello.”
Supporters like Rosenblatt portray Friedman as a friend of Israel. However a survey of his extensive writing about the Middle East shows that Friedman is hostile to Israel. The problem isn’t simply his “sometimes sharp criticisms” of Israel, rather it is his ever-shifting standards that always find Israel wanting.
In 1999, Friedman wrote a hypothetical column titled “How Bibi got Re-elected.” The conceit of the column — actually written before Netanyahu lost the premiership to Ehud Barak — was that Netanyahu tackled the most important issue facing Israel at that time — withdrawing Israeli troops from Lebanon. Friedman wrote:
Now that Israeli troops are out of Lebanon, noted Mr. Netanyahu, everything is reversed: Politically, if the Iranian-directed Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas try to come across the border, they will be invading Israel, and Israel will be justified in massively retaliating against Lebanese, Syrian and Iranian troops that abet such an invasion. And if Israel does retaliate, it won’t be with guerrilla warfare, but with the Israeli Air Force massively striking Lebanese, Iranian and Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and maybe inside Syria.
The Israeli move has totally unnerved the Syrians, the Hezbollah guerrillas and Iran. ”They are all now in a quandary,” said the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen. ”The Hezbollah guerrillas are saying to themselves: ‘Now that we have liberated Lebanon, do we want to use that as leverage to rule Lebanon? Or do we want to use that as a springboard to move on to Jerusalem?’ If they want to do the latter, now they’re really going to have to pay for it.”
Over the next six years Hezbollah violated the internationally approved border no less than 20 times, killing and wounding Israeli civilians and soldiers. In 2006 — following a particularly egregious incident in which Hezbollah crossed the borders, immediately killing eight soldiers and kidnapping (later killing) Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Israel struck back. How did Friedman describe Israel’s response?
In a column titled “War, Timeout, War, Time …” Friedman wrote about Israel’s three recent wars against terror:
What is different about these three wars, though, is that Israel won them using what I call “Hama Rules” — which are no rules at all. “Hama Rules” are named after the Syrian town of Hama, where, in 1982, then-President Hafez el-Assad of Syria put down a Muslim fundamentalist uprising by shelling and then bulldozing their neighborhoods, killing more than 10,000 of his own people.
In Israel’s case, it found itself confronting enemies in Gaza and Lebanon armed with rockets, but nested among local civilians, and Israel chose to go after them without being deterred by the prospect of civilian casualties. As the Lebanese militia leader Bashir Gemayel was fond of saying — before he himself was blown up — “This is not Denmark here. And it is not Norway.”
The brutality of the Israeli retaliations bought this timeout with Hezbollah and Hamas, and the civilian casualties and troubling TV images bought Israel a U.N. investigation into alleged war crimes.
Even as Friedman acknowledged that Israel was fighting an enemy embedded among civilians, he still compared Israel’s second Lebanon War with Hafez Assad’s brutal assault on civilians. Rather than defending Israel’s right to self-defense, Friedman equated Israel’s self-defense with Assad’s all out assault on civilians. Even though Israel heeded his advice by withdrawing from southern Lebanon, Friedman didn’t defend Israel when the withdrawal resulted in a new threat.
Mr. Friedman is basing his article on some very superficial aproach on the evnts that have happend in the last few years (3 to be more exact).
A standing ovation to Netanyhu, is not a personal one but is a standing ovation to the primi minister of Israel. Mr. friedman forgets the uncerteinty created by President Obama having his first interview with Al-jazira and his first speech as a president in Cairo. This send a panicing message to the Israeli Goverment, and a toughning reaction on the israeli political stand. The message of change reached the arab world with and arab spring with very little backup from the west, in the US you may see it as a Dawn of a new era, in Israel, just another distabilizator on a status quo and bridge building relations of decades.
I suggest to Mr. friedman to look on broader spectrum of things and be less driven by emotional pulses, when attempting to make a comprehensive analysis on the Middle east.
Very well done. Thank you, Mr. Gerstman, for your punctilious research and excellent column. I hope the subject reads it and takes it to heart, seeing clearly that his columns add up to a very troubling and troubled vision of America’s most dependable ally in the region, if not the world.
Thank you for your kind words. There is no chance that Friedman would read the column; he has no interest in questioning his own assumptions.
David, this is an excellent column. Too bad Friedman won’t read it, even though he can’t change his perspective without radically altering both how he perceives himself on the ME and on how others perceive him too. Dennis Prager wrote an interesting related piece recently, explaining how Friedman, whom he assumes to believe himself to be a true friend of Israel, could have claimed the congressional standing ovation for Netanyahu was “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” He says it’s the inevitable end point of those on the left:
“But it does mean that leftism leads to pathologic altruism, i.e., bad things done by people with pure intentions. Just as Mahatma Gandhi’s hatred of violence led him to tell the Jews of Europe not to resist Hitler, so too has leftism led decent people (e.g., Friedman) who would weep at Israel’s destruction to mouth the very same lies about Israel as those who seek its annihilation.
Maybe Prager would agree with you that no matter Friedman’s belief he is a friend of Israel he is in fact otherwise.
Thanks David for your column here; it feels just a little better knowing that someone has so skillfully called the influential Friedman on his inherent anti-Israel bias, as evidenced in changing arguments over the years with only one consistency: Israel is always at fault.
I think that Friedman has simply conformed to the long-established State Department line regarding Israel; i.e., he is ambitious and has assimilated well in his own interest. See http://clarespark.com/2009/09/11/oil-politics-and-obamas-view-of-israeli-history/.
Friedman is a long-standing member of the Stockholm Syndrome.
It’s got nothing to do with wether or not he is a ‘friend’ of Israel or not – he simply doesn’t give a damn about the truth.
Tom Friedman gets the Mideasttruth.com Clown of the Year Award for 2011:
http://www.mideasttruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10844
People take Friedman seriously, as if he himself believes what he writes. Perhaps there is another explanation after all. Friedman married into what was once one of Americas richest families. Last year the family business , a CHICAGO based company, filed for bankruptcy ( $25 Billion ) in one of the largest commercial bankruptcy cases in US history. His wife also sat on the Pulitzer Prize committee. Perhaps the grandiose little poobah is only paying back some of the favors the family business got in Federal Court? After all throwing a little dirt on Israel is a lot better than hearing your wife whine over her fathers and brothers being locked up for twenty. Especially when your new York Times stock has lost ninety percent of its value over the last six years. Friedman? A least a hooker is honest about what she is selling.
Well at least as often as Tom.
I have written this before, where Israel is concerned it is all about Tom Friedman and nothing else. In his first book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, he writes that he yelled at the Israeli commanders after the Sabra and Shatila massacres. He did not yell about their lack of oversight or their lack of caring for civilians. He yelled at them “How could you do this to ME? I am the only Jew in Lebanon.” The fact that the entire Jewish world was overcome with disbelief at this moment did not matter. The dead did not matter. For Friedman it was ME,ME,ME. Friedman has been on an anti-Israel rampage ever since.
Only if other Jews are willing to die to assuage his ego, then Friedman will decide that Israel has a right to exist once again. (Of course until we ungrateful Americans give Obama powers like the tyrants that run China he won’t like Americans either). It is and will always be simply about his narcissism.
A little of topic. The massacre was carried out by Christian Arabs. NOT BY ISRAELIS!
Not off topic at all. The Israelis were in charge of the area and allowed the Christian phalange into the camps. Even an Israeli investigation held Sharon and Begin indirectly responsible for the killings (under International law the “occupying army” which Israel as at the time is responsible for civilian population).
You obviously were not part of the world wide Jewish community at the time of the 1982 Lebanon War (I happened to remember it well and was raised in a family of Jewish professionals) or you would have known that there was a hue and cry and disbelief from the Jewish community that the Israelis did not protect the Palestinian civilians.
The point of the comment was that while the Jewish community world wide were dismayed by what happened in Sabra and Shatila, Friedman only thought of himself, not those that were murdered or the implications for Israel.Hence his narcissistic personality issues have always taken preeminence before reality, history, community or country.
The Phalanges (christian arabs, pro Nazi in the old days) were meant to fight next to Israel during the war against Fatah. They did nothing. When it came to taking out terrorists from a refugee camp ( a risk filled operation) Israel demanded that they did it as they had until then stood back while we were being killed. The IDF surrounded the camp and sent up flares and the Phalanges went in – but instead of fighting they killed every man woman and child they could find until it was discovered and stopped.
As a result of this Arik Sharon was forbidden. by a special commission,( huge demonstrations were held) ever to be Min of defense again as they claimed that he should have known this possibility. But low and behold he became Prime Minister. (When some journalist in the states called him a murderer he sued him and won)
Actually you are referencing the Time Magazine article that said Sharon knew beforehand that the phalange would commit the massacres in the refugee camps.The suit had nothing to do with them calling him a murderer, but a war cirminal. He then sued for defamation of character and won. The only reason he did not garner a monetary reward was because under American law as a public figure there had to be a verifiable knowledge on Time Magazine’s part that they were lieing and causing harm to the individual. It is a very high bar to cross. For some reason the court found that even though there was no proof that Sharon knew what would happen and that Time had no evidence that he did know that a massacre would happen, the court found that Time did not breach the libel law because Sharon was a public official. If he had been a private individual under US libel law he would have been awarded financial compensation. Convoluted reasoning but still existing law. It is a very famous case, Sharon v Time Magazine.
The Lebanon War investigating committee did not bar him from politics.They did not have force of law and was no different than the Iraq War Commission held in the US which had recommendations but no force of law. Even though it was only a recommendation Sharon did resign.
Sharon became PM because of the second intifada. If there had not been homicide bombings in Israel Sharon would not have had a second chance in politics. Remember too it was Sharon who withdrew Israel from Gaza, It was his force of personality that led many to believe that even thought there was an Israeli withdrawal it would still create a positive situation for Israel. Instead you have Hamastan. It was Olmert and Livni who screwed that up.
As far as the phalange being pro-Nazi, so were all the Arabs especially the Palestinians. Their leader Hajj Amin-el-Huseini was Hitler’s guest and he was a wanted Nazi war criminal at the end of the war. Also if you want to go over massacre for massacre, the Palestinians did their own share of slaughter of Christians along time before Sabra and Shatilla. This action was tit-for-tat part of the Lebanese civil war, which by the way the Palestinians started. However, the Israelis should have had more sense and should have actually known due to the history what would happen if they let the Phalange into the camps. Understandably the Israelis were loathe to go into the camps themselves, but woulda, coulda, shoulda doesn’t change what actually happened.
I agree with most of what you write. 1
In Israel a recommendation by a commission is regarded as law because of public pressure.
2 Husseini ended up being sent to control Moslem forces in the Balkans – but instead of killing Jews – killed Serbian Christians. (The Serbians actually save many Jews and Sharon often reminded us of this while Nato was bombing them). Some maniac scientist convinced Hitler that Arabs were Aryan!!! They were planning a concentration camp east of Haifa. The few hundred thousand Jews here were already training in guerrilla war but you guys and allies stopped them. Thank you.
3 The Phalanges were fascist Christians.
4. In the 1st Lebanese war, every night, we could see the over the cease fire lines, two villages Christian and Moslem shelling each other – and in the morning the hearses coming to collect the dead brave heroes.(BTW the shelling usually took place after some international football match that apparently we were all watching!!)
5 Besides commissions that are set over our regular catastrophes we also have a very tough comptroller. BB and a number of ministers are now being investigated for not investing in our fire service causing half our just about only forest to burn up and losing 40 people. BB is also being investigated for misuse of travelling abroad against parliamentary ethics. (He also flew around America in a friends business Jet – which is a big no no. Israel doesn’t have a constitution so relies very heavily on an a strong independent judiciary – who BTW are amazing)
6 Sharon saw the Hamastan developing and guarding he few settlers there was out of proportion to any benefit. Very few people regard Gaza as part of biblical Israel.
What Friedman and the others simply do not get is:
Mohammad.
The Muslim/Arab perfect man. Murderer, tyrant, liar.
Serial violator of all agreements. An insatiable, merciless, violent and unrelenting foe
with zero intentions for peace with his neighbors.
All Muslim/Arab political military and social models are built upon in the image of this man.
This is who they are, these are their intentions. Period.
And since they all, to a man, clearly and openly declare worship for the way of this Prophet,
fools like Friedman who claim they do NOT, are simply delusional.
Muslim/Arab institutions can never be “negotiated” with…
Not because I say so, but because THEY say so.
They worship the Prophet, and follow his way of perpetual deceit to achieve their ends.
Ask them. They will tell you so.
In that instance, I will take them at their word.
Why Friedman insists HE knows more about the Prophet than his most ardent followers
is a mystery to all thinking people.
Tom Friedman posesses that rare combination of egotism and stupidity that can only be achieved
by spending a lifetime among fools in the insulated circles of western liberal establishments.
Tom Friedman does get it. He’s on their side against Israel and Jews..
The problem is that people like you cannot or will not confront this sordid fact.
By calling him stupid you let him off the hook.
Friedman says the things he does with malice aforethought, nasty, vicious, and deadly.
Come to think of it, you’re right…
100% right..
I was letting my “christian” (generic small c) beliefs cloud my judgement. Forgiveness of tresspasses and such, I was being charitable as to his motives.
But what would he possibly GAIN from an Islamist Victory?
To be beheaded LAST?
Or does he think somehow the “money/lifestyle buffer” he and his ilk typically enjoy
will insulate them from Islamist encroachments?
Like the way the Uber-wealthy liberals of the ’70s (and today) favor “bussing” the kids of struggling middle class parents back into the urban hell-hole failures they tried desperately to move AWAY from. Throwing the “little people” to the animals to seem oh-so-fair and accomodating, knowing their Muffy and Brad were safe in exclusive private schools.
Does he think they’ll never get to his neighborhood?
What exactly is it for him if the Islamists win?
What’s in it for him?
The exquisite pleasure and delirious, exultant joy of seeing Israel destroyed and her Jews massacred.
His dream come true.
He doesn’t imagine for a minute any harm will come to him.
But he can convert, if necessary.
I don’t think they’d want him, though.
Well done,David.
One thing that has occurred to me. Friedman definitely has President Obama’s ear – the NYT was even bragging just before PM Netanyahu’s last trip to the US that President Obama had consulted him on Middle East policy.
Based on that, I’d bet it’s a certainty that Tom Friedman was the author of this president’s attempt to ambush Netanyahu last May by springing the ‘pre-67 borders’ nonsense in the president’s Mideast policy speech while Netanyahu was still en route to address a joint session of Congress.
The NYT is a consistently anti-Israel newspaper, and like several other left leaning outlets, they delight in finding Jews with those views to give a byline to. Friedman is simply a long-time beneficiary of this policy.
Rob,
Thank you.
It wasn’t just the Landler article you cite. Earlier in the year, Friedman quoted anonymous administration officials who were reportedly appalled that Israel wasn’t supporting the Arab spring enthusiastically enough. And in the Arab Awakening and Israel Friedman pretty much parroted Panetta’s “damn table” argument.
The only question is who’s parroting whom.
Clearly the administration and Friedman are on the same page.
Tommy F. is a self-promoting hypocrite (built himself a mansion (wazzit “the wife’s” money ?) while bleating about the green thing, for example…
As for Israel, Friedman will say and do whatever fashionable circles in NYC are saying and doing.
He is that shallow.
In my never humble enough opinion, analyzing what he does or does not say about anything is a waste of time.
I never have and never will take him seriously.
a lot of people do take him seriously
The NYT is doing an excellent job of imitaing Der Stormer, with Mr. Friedman being propagandist-in-chief.
This is the third or fourth thread on Mini-Goldstone Friedman.
What’s left to say?
The guy has built a career as the Jew boy ready willing and able to dump on Israel to cultivate fame and fortune.
If his last name was Smith, no one would pay him any attention. That says it all.
There is a famous photograph of the young Friedman standing with his friend and mentor Yasser Arafat. Google it, it’s a picture that’s worth a thousand words.
Israel Matzav just posted it.
I prefer the picture of Tom in a black hat for his (Lubavitch) nephew’s wedding, in which he looks like an Orthodox Jew. It may not be the way he views himself, but I suspect that that’s the way his Muslim friends view him.
Arafat and Friedman:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YjHVr6tNUHk/Tvq6iFNdLjI/AAAAAAAAjw0/BFtwwKMEZS0/s1600/Tom%2BFriedman%2Band%2BYasser%2BArafat.jpg
Friedman probably wrote the Hamas charter. Let’s just say he did. In fact I’m certain of it.
he didn’t, but he might just as well have written it, that’s certain.
The Hamas Charter denounces the Rotary Club as a Zionist institution being employed the Jews for their plans of world conquest therefore it follows Tom Friedman did write the Hamas charter.
The Hamas charter is more insane than mein kampf – i really wish the good hearted left wing anti – us folks would just read 2 pages!
Israel doesn’t have many friends. It should be grateful that Tom Friedman still is a friend. But, as the outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted – “Israel is an ungrateful ally.” Israel is now an international pariah due to its own actions – not due to anything Tom Friedman wrote. You can only push people so far, and Israel is learning that the hard way.
This is, of course, a lie.
Oh, Caren. The problem stated here is that for Tom F Israel is an enemy. If Friedman is a friend then we need to reverse the definition of friend and foe.
Israel is being pushed by a double standard European and American left. It’s only trying to survive, and people like you can’t stand it.
I just don’t get the obsession with Israel that both sides of the aisle have. I find it creepy that people just slobber over another country besides their own. Especially as far as I know, they haven’t been a particularly good ally. How many wars have they fought with us? None, as near as I can tell. As compared to say, Australia, which has fought with us in every single war there has been in the 20th Century – from WW1 to Korea and Viet Nam to the wars in the Middle East.
And on the flip side, why people single out Israel for condemnation when other countries do far, far worse things. Turkey is a great example – the Kurds are repressed far more than the Palestinians.
I also hope those on the right remember this when Iraq ends up being three states and Turkey decides to start a war with Kurdistan…I expect them to stick up Kurdistan as much as they stick up for Israel.
Forget all that: Thomas Friedman stole my dog plus he doesn’t like sunny days. A clear case of anti-Semitism, useful idiot fever, Stockholm Syndrome, self-hating Jew and psoriasis.
john irgun
Are you trying to be funny? If so ,try harder.
If not, you may want to find a better use for your free time.
You mean by writing that Friedman would cackle if Israel were destroyed and that he “hates” Israel? That kind of better use? To me that “reality” IS a joke. How can I then go wrong? Why not just say Friedman donates to the Muslim Brotherhood and wears a keffiya to bed?
Exactly!
And you’ll cackle with him.
“……they haven’t been a particularly good ally. How many wars have they fought with us?”
Maybe you should ask, “How many wars has Israel fought against the allies of the former U.S.S.R.? Or did you sleep through the Cold War? I’m not a great fan of Israel, but if the left is against them, I’m for them. But my support is getting strained, when American Jews still support Obama.
hand in hand on the war on terror twenty four hours a day. Also not one american has died or been scratched for Israel in 60 years of battle and never never will.
As the heb exprtession says “im ani lo li, mi li” If I am not for myself – who is”
David, congratulations on yet another fine piece of research! It’s good to see you here.
“Even as Friedman acknowledged that Israel was fighting an enemy embedded among civilians, he still compared Israel’s second Lebanon War with Hafez Assad’s brutal assault on civilians. Rather than defending Israel’s right to self-defense, Friedman equated Israel’s self-defense with Assad’s all out assault on civilians. Even though Israel heeded his advice by withdrawing from southern Lebanon, Friedman didn’t defend Israel when the withdrawal resulted in a new threat.”
To people like Friedman, Israel can never do anything right, except cease to exist. That would make matters a lot easier for everyone, right Mr. Friedman? If Israel invades Lebanon because Hezbollah is firing missiles at Israel from Lebanon, then Israel is wrong. If Israel attacks Gaza because of missiles and attacks that are launched from Gaza, Israel is wrong. And if Israel thinks about attacking Iran because Iran is developing a nuclear bomb that could destroy Israel, then Israel is really wrong. But I’m sure that if Israel goes up in a major nuclear fireball because of an Iranian nuclear missile, then I’m sure Friedman and people of his ilk will definitely say that Israel finally did the right thing, which is nothing at all.
Why should the US be any more of a friend to Israel than we are to Estonia?
I like your question.
You obviously are a newbie to the issues being discussed here. So why do you feel qualified to comment on them? Learn first, then comment.
Typical political correctness: where the question is the insult. No answer thus follows as supporting Israel compared to other countries is as concise as 2+2=4.
Brian, you’ve obviously been here long enough to know that most people probably don’t give a damn what you or Tom Friedman think.
it is rude and counter=productive to ask curteous people to quiet themselves. YOU should apologize.
it is a legitimate question and there is a good answer.
1. israel benefits us. intelligence info, military cooperation and supply [they are indispensible for our iraq/afghan wars] and politically as our ‘strong horse’ in the middle east.
2. estonia is not an ally
3. truth, justice, righteousness, etc
Israel is a true ally of the United States. With only 1/10 of 1% of the land in the Middle East and only 6 million people, it is the only democracy that respects all religions and nationalities. U.S. military and policemen routinely train there to learn anti-terrorist tactics. Israel shares intelligence with us and technology. They invented plates for the outside of tanks that resist explosives that we used in Iraq. Friedman and Obama are still stuck on tired old dogma that paints the west as colonialists that oppress the third world. The reality today is that the Muslim world is colonizing by force all over the the world. They are terrorizing the world and other religions are either overrun, or leaving the Muslim/Arab lands. This is what Israel is surrounded with, not peaceful Palestinians
Israel is a true ally?
Please define this term because in my understanding of the meaning of the word we would have to exclude other countries that attack our Naval vessels and machine gun the crewmen, routinely sponsor espionage against us and those that transfer our military technology to our potential enemies. I find it difficult to apply the term “ally” to Israel
Re: The Liberty – Israel apologized and paid reparations. Get over it.
The US and Israel did not become allies until AFTER the ’67 war, when the US realized Israel could be a useful balance against Soviet influence in the rest of the region.
The ’67 war was fought without US aircraft and with WWII M48 tanks Israel practically had to beg for and then refurbished. The jets that attacked the Liberty were Mirage IIIs because the US wouldn’t sell jets to Israel. How were they allies then?
When it became clear Israel would be a hedge against the Soviets, there was good reason for US to ally with Israel. And the Soviets then began losing ground in the region.
If you can’t get over the idea that AFTER an incident countries can’t be allies, I suppose you would not consider Japan or Germany allies of the US after WWII either.
And I suppose you don’t think the US ever spies on Israel or that other US allies don’t spy on the US?
the USS Liberty? the LIBERTY? that’s all you got?
it reminds me of those liberals who answer every instance of Islamic terrorism by bringing up Timothy McVeigh. it’s almost as if you didn’t have anything new to mention…hmmm…
Israel has been America’s only consistent ally in the Middle East for many years. it also exchanges intel with us. and since people like you always want to talk about all that money we give them–most of that money we make them use to buy military equipment FROM US, giving American workers jobs and putting “all that money” right back into our economy.
of course, people like you don’t really want to know the answers to these questions. you mostly want to point out how the Jews are the problem….
Why not put in the context of the shot up US ship?
Not the first time since the end of WWII that the CIA made a mess of things for themselves and for others.
But then of course the CIA made use of Aldrich Ames who turned out to be a Russian mole who sold out his colleagues for money and got Pollard blamed for it.
Why not moan about the US’ NATO allies who went against it in the UN many times?
Why Turkey, that great ally Obama loves so much, screwed up plans for the invasion of Iraq by preventing US troops from passing through. NATO ally.
Through all of the Cold War the Israelis stood with the US, and continue to support the US in many fields.
Actually it looks as if taking away Israel will remove the only reliable ally the US has had all these years.
Tom Friedman is another leftist Jew blinded by his leftist dogma. If he was to be caught by members of Hamas, or Hezbollah, they would kill him just for the fun of it… just because he’s a Jew. And yet he carries their water for them whenever he can.
Mr Friedman is a typical leftist. He may have been a supporter of Israel once. As he has moved ever farther left(Read his stuff, you;ll see what I mean.)he has, as all leftists do (I don’t know why) turned hostile to Israel. He says Israel needs to take risks. You mean to say they haven’t! Lebenon, Gaza, see what that got them. With whom do you negotiate? The people who never stop saying they want to not only destroy Israel, but every Jew in the world! Thomas Friedman: SHUT THE HELL UP! From one Jew who will NEVER walk into a gas chamber!
It’s not because he’s a typical leftist Jew blinded by dogma, even if he is one.
Mr. Friedman has a deeper, more personal, murderous hatred for Jews and for Israel.
I’m not a Jew and so it’s difficult for me to understand how this happens. Friedman is not the only Jew, or leftist, who sings this same tune. I’ve seen the irrationality leftist thought engenders. Just look at NOW and how they no longer support women’s rights because it means they would have to line up against their America Hating Islamic friends.
Latma, the Israeli satirical TV show says it all about Tom Friedman at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MffXBqfC-CU
Specifically go to 3.55 minutes to hear Tom singing to himself..
With Friedman and his ilk the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This administration
and State Dept. are anti-American and anti-Semites. These people live in an echo chamber and reinforce each other. The Jews like Friedman remind me of the German Jews who could not believe that Hitler meant them. After all, they fought in WWI,
and the most decorated soldier was Jewish. They were more German than the Germans. The moral and physical cowards like Friedman think that they will be the
ones spared. They will not. The term “Kappo” describes these people. They were the Jews who policed the concentration camps for the Germans. They thought they will be spared. They were not.
I suggest that Friedman’s relentless criticism of Israel places him in the growing number of people who would not grieve if Israel were to be annihilated by their enemies. Obama’s glad-hand friendship with Muslims may well be interpreted similarly. Israel was created by the UN with strong leadership by President Truman, to offer a land of their own to the Jews of Europe persecuted by the Nazis, selecting three enclaves of “Palestine” which previously had Jewish majorities. The moment Israel was established, the neighboring Muslim countries went to war with the nascent Israel. They lost, and Israel seized areas between the enclaves, establishing a Greater Israel better able to defend itself from any subsequent aggression.
Now, with Egypt controlled by the Jew-hating Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey becoming hostile, Israel is surrounded by enemies who have hated Jews since the days of Muhammad. So perhaps Friedman is anticipating a second four years of Obama and slow degradation of our alliance (yes, alliance) with tiny, democratic Israel and the annihilation of it.
And he is not alone in this disposition…….
Historian, huh? You might want to read that Balfour thingy and the preamble to the British Mandate.
“Israel was created by the UN with strong leadership by President Truman, to offer a land of their own to the Jews of Europe persecuted by the Nazis, selecting three enclaves of “Palestine” which previously had Jewish majorities.”
The UN approved a partition plan for Palestine to replace the British Mandate. The UN did not create Israel. Israel was created by Jews living in Palestine by their own declaration of independence when the Mandate expired. Israel’s existence was then defended by Israelis. Yes, Truman voted for partition, as did the General Assembly by 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions. Even the Soviets, the whole Soviet bloc, in fact, voted for partition. The Arabs declared war, and for most of them, the war never ended.
Many states get declared and many of them survive, not without having to defend their borders. Sometimes, that even means making those borders defensible. For some reason, the world has different rules for Israel and the Jews. Friedman does not get that, and sides with Israel’s enemies. But then, Friedman also admires China’s “one-party autocracy.” So why are we wasting bandwidth on him?
Without British commitment to the whole shebang there would be no Israel today.
they were for it, until they were against it.
The British commitment (Balfour)? That was 1917. Essentially recinded thereafter. The British commitment to the Arabs to keep the Jews out in the 30s and 40s nearly prevented Israel from ever existing. The British do not deserve credit – they closed Israel to Jews just when Jews had no place to go.
what makes him anti semetic is not his critisizm. nobody not israel or jews is above reproach. what makes him anti semetic is his blatent fabrication of lies and libs like his rabid defense of them especially in the overwhelming face of facts and logic. to say people like him deny Israels right to defend herself against an enemy who swore death to the jews long before the 1968 lines, America or Palestine ever existed. Israels enemies flat out state that nothing less than her complete destrution will do and yet they choose to twist and blame Israel for the fact that Arabs want to kill her and anything not islamic. People like that make me sick…he is no friend to israel. he is a true blue progressive who was born to lie and decieve. he only pretends to be her friend because Israel still has power. he will go with the winner
Interesting how much news these quotes have made. It shows how much the Jewish people care about their country, whether they live there or not.
nobody here has mentioned one obvious thing: Friedman is a REALLY BAD WRITER! I stopped reading the NYT years ago, so I didn’t realize how dreadful he actually is. but really: all these pretend “open letters to…”? and the name-dropping (“as I was saying over cocktails to King Abdullah last week in Sharm-el-Sheik…”).
ick.
I’m so glad “our side” has the great writers we do: Charles Krauthammer, VD Hanson, Heather MacDonald, David Solway, Mark Steyn…and David Gerstman, who I was not familiar with previously but who I will be reading in future! this was a good article about a really troubling trend: self-hating Jews with a bully pulpit at (still) the most widely read paper in America.
MichiganRuth, I agree. While James Taranto calls Friedman the “worst writer in the English language” (or something like that) few acknowledge that he is a really bad writer. It’s not just the tropes you mention. He sprinkles his columns with run on sentences that don’t make sense.
And thank you for comparing me to Krauthammer, Hanson, etc. It’s very flattering, though I don’t think I’m on their level. Yet.
If the Mohammedan ARAB Invaders laid down their arms there would be peace, if the Jews laid down their arms there would be no more Jews. That in a nutshell is what is happening and anyone who does not or cannot accept this reality is either a left wing moonbat and Islamophile apologist or an actual Mohammedan.