Selling Out Israel

I have often argued that the New York Times columnist Tommy Friedman, has gone to war against Israel and its prime minister because he fears that Joe Biden be held responsible for the consequences of his policies. And I believe that he is doing policy for the administration, working to save Hamas.

Friedman has an inveterate fondness for that notable Jew hater Mahmoud Abbas, who he considers a man of peace. And he often reviles the Israeli prime minister, for the crime of not following his, Friedman’s advice.

So, Friedman considers that Netanyahu is at fault for everything that is going wrong today in the region. He has nothing to say about the Biden administration’s failure to use sanctions against Iran, its willingness to give the mullahs tens of billions of dollars and its sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas.

In fairness, Netanyahu was complicit in some of these policies. He does bear responsibility for the security failure that produced October 7. And yet, there is more to the story, even though Friedman wants to spin it to favor Democrats:

Using its allies Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran has shrunk Israel since Oct. 7 — forcing tens of thousands of Israelis off Israel’s western and northern borders and isolating the country on the world stage over Gaza — while Iran has become a threshold nuclear power and the biggest imperialist force in the region (given that it effectively controls four Arab states) and is less isolated than it has been in years. All of this has happened on Bibi’s watch.

Not a word about the Abraham Accords. Not a word about the simple fact that it has all taken place on Biden’s watch. Not a word about the Trump maximum pressure policy, designed as it was to starve the Iranian regime.

The truth remains, the Trump administration gave us the Abraham Accords. The Biden administration gave us October 7. It is obvious to all. Yet the pea brain of Tommy Friedman, designed to traffic in leftist propaganda, cannot grasp it.

Of course, Tommy has been insisting that the Palestinian Authority, aka Fatah, should be running Gaza. To which Salmon Rushdie remarked recently:

I have been in favor of a separate Palestinian state most of my life. But if there were a Palestinian state now, it would be run by Hamas and we would have a Taliban-like state. A satellite state of Iran. Is this what the progressive movements of the Western Left want to create?

Apparently, and most importantly, Tommy has nothing good to say about the Israeli prime minister and nothing very bad to say about Fatah. He does offer up a paragraph denouncing Hamas, but as long as Hamas is fighting against Israel and as long as Tommy expresses nothing but contempt for only one leader, he is effectively lending aid and comfort to the other side. 

For those who are tempted by Tommy’s drivel, I would point out that 80% of the people on the West Bank thoroughly approved of what happened on October 7. Would you want to make peace with such a group? Would you trust them with your security?

Besides, the Wall Street Journal offers this editorial comment on the Palestinian Authority. Tommy has ignored this point:

Certainly not the feeble Palestinian Authority, which wants a power-sharing deal with Hamas in Gaza because otherwise it knows it would be slaughtered.

One understands that the Biden administration occasionally says the right thing about Israel. Witness yesterday’s vigorous denunciation of the International Criminal Court call for indictments against Israeli war leaders.

And yet, considering that Biden has been trying to play both ends against the middle, refusing to take sides, trying to cut off arms shipments to an ally in the middle of  a war, one cannot exclude the possibility that groups like the ICC and nations like Norway, Ireland and Spain understand that they can work to undermine the Israeli war effort, without fearing any consequences.

As I noted yesterday, Joe Biden has said the right things about the ICC. Now we await its actions against this rogue body. Will he still allow the husband of one Amal Clooney to host a fundraiser for him? If he does, it tells us that the talk about supporting Israel is election-year talk. It tells us that if Biden wins in November, he will turn against Israel and force it to surrender to Hamas.

Tommy is unhappy about this. He is even more unhappy that Netanyahu invited Congresswoman Elise Stefanik,  a talented young legislator, to address the Israeli Knesset.

Again, while Tommy considers Mahmoud Abbas a statesman,he understands that a future Trump administration will happily support Israel and will allow it to destroy Hamas. That he cannot abide.

Consider this paragraph, filled with contempt for Stefanik. I trust you will note the irony in the first sentence. It does not come naturally to Tommy:

He did, though, show his gratitude to Biden by having his parliamentary majority give Elise Stefanik, a hack Republican congresswoman with no foreign policy standing whatsoever — and a person groveling to become Donald Trump’s vice president — the extraordinary honor of giving an address Sunday in the Knesset, where she slammed the U.S. president and praised Trump.

Does this reek of misogyny? If you were inclined to compare Elise Stefanik to our current vice president, it’s no context. The certifiable imbecile Kamala Harris pales in comparison to the highly competent and intelligent Stefanik. 

If you do not think like Tommy you will be showered with contempt. So much for respecting competent women. The only women who count for the left are idiots like Kamala Harris, a woman who can barely articulate a coherent sentence. 

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