When Tom Friedman says the possibility of a Palestinian state was always a “fiction,” he shows contempt for Palestinians and reveals his role, promoting support for Israel in the U.S. establishment, no matter what.
The fascistic new Israeli government is a step too far for liberal Zionists; and segments of the pro-Israel community are calling on American Jews to criticize Israel, and bring the politicians. Some even say, It’s apartheid. Or “Jewish supremacy.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken should publicize Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call for a Palestinian village to be “erased” and use his global “megaphone” to discredit Smotrich, says Tom Friedman of the NYT. But Chuck Schumer is yucking it up with Netanyahu to please American Jews.
NYT columnist Tom Friedman painted the past year in Israel—the first Netanyahu-free year since 2008—as an icon of democracy, where Israeli Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel danced together under the blue and white flag, in harmony and happiness. That is a contemptible piece of fiction which erases apartheid, blames Palestinians for their own ongoing oppression, and praises those who would abandon their cousins under occupation.
The Democratic Party is about to become the latest “existential threat” to the Jewish state. And there’s one thing you can be sure of, Zionists won’t take U.S. defection lying down. Tom Friedman worries that things here could “blow up.”
The New York Times top foreign affairs columnist has given grants through his family foundation to MEMRI, a pro-Israel propaganda shop that has a record of Islamophobia, and other pro-Israel organizations without disclosing as much to readers.
Tom Friedman says that Israel and the US are in the same boat, trying to build “pluralistic.. idealistic” societies. This is a rhetorical strategy to suppress the apartheid charge against Israel from a leading human rights group. And Friedman has freely acknowledged that his job entails promoting Israel. “Israel had me at hello,” he has said.
The New York Times just ran an article in which an Israeli documentary filmmaker asserts that “Evangelicals are the only significant power outside Israel that is openly supporting the settlements. No one else does.” This is simply not true, and reporter David Halbfinger was a witness to it in the powers of Trump aides David Friedman and Jared Kushner.
Liberal Zionists can relax. With the apartheid designation by a leading Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, still a secret to most Americans, groups like J Street don’t have to explain why they still oppose the nonviolent global campaign for Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS).