Unrelenting laceration of Israel has long been the hallmark of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. It began when, as a Brandeis University student, he joined Breira, a left-wing group demanding that Israel relinquish biblical Judea and Samaria, restored to the Jewish state during the Six-Day War, and recognize Palestinian national aspirations in that land.
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Years later, when he became Times' Jerusalem Bureau chief, Friedman seldom missed an opportunity to criticize Israel. He labeled it an "occupying power" while dismissing Palestinian terrorist attacks as merely a "poke in the ribs." He identified the violent intifada with the American struggle for civil rights. Returning to the United States as a Times columnist, he warned that without a two-state (Israel and Palestine) solution, Israel would "be stuck with an apartheid-like, democracy-sapping permanent occupation" of its biblical homeland.
Friedman's decades of criticism of Israel laid the groundwork for his recent Times diatribe (Jan. 18). He imagines that "a new Israel is emerging," with "many ministers having the audacity to be hostile to American values" – as if Israeli government officials must be bound to Thomas Friedman's political preferences. He continues writing that "nearly all are hostile to the Democratic Party," as though its embrace is a requirement for Israeli political leaders.
Friedman urges President Biden to "wade right in" to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu and his "extremist coalition from turning Israel into an illiberal bastion of zealotry." It seems oddly intrusive (except to Friedman) that an American president (to say nothing of a Times columnist) should tell an Israeli prime minister how to lead his country.
Friedman suggests that President Biden try to "nudge things onto a healthier path," while displaying "tough love." High among Friedman's citations is the determination of the Netanyahu government to "radically alter the situation in the West Bank" – biblical Judea and Samaria – by "effectively annexing it." Thomas Friedman may not like it, but the likelihood that Biden – or any American president – could persuade Israel to relinquish its biblical homeland is nil.
There is also the issue of the Temple Mount, the ancient Jewish holy site in Jerusalem's Old City. In Friedman's rendering, Biden must warn Netanyahu that his "extremist ministers" may "change the status quo on the Temple Mount," which prohibits Jewish prayer. That might "destabilize" Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and the Abraham Accords, which formalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries.
That Jews are the victims of discrimination on the Temple Mount, where the First and Second Temples once stood but they are prohibited from praying, is ignored by Friedman.
Friedman's self-appointed role as Biden's adviser is predictable. His laceration of the Jewish state has a long history. Israeli leaders are unlikely to pay attention to Friedman's fantasies. But he can find comfort in The New York Times, where unease with the Jewish state and its leaders is very common. Back in November, he wrote: "The Israel we know is gone." Alas, the Friedman we know is still here. Decades of unrelenting criticism suggest that he, not Netanyahu, may be the zealot.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
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