Thomas Friedman, screengrab from Zoom interview with Katie Couric.
The New York Times’ leading columnist, Thomas Friedman, has devised an answer to “How Trump Could Earn an Unexpected Place in History.” Friedman believes there is an opportunity for Donald Trump to exert pressure on Israelis and Palestinians, which would help the president “find a place in the history books that you did not expect.” This is part delusion, part illusion, and part confusion, all hallmarks of Friedman’s writings on the Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza over the past year.
Friedman argues that the “one common denominator among Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, and West Bank Palestinians” is that they are “exhausted by this war.” But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t exhausted; his actions in Gaza and Lebanon are prolonging the war, which serves his interest. After all, the war is his “Get out of Jail Free” card as well as his instrument for remaining the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history.
And there is no guarantee that Netanyahu’s immediate successor will be less dependent on the ultra-orthodox community for forming a coalition government than he is. In fact, the majority of the Israeli population appears to support Netanyahu’s genocidal bombardment policy, which has found its way to Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese children have been killed by Israeli bombardments, and more than 1,000 children have been injured. In the past two months, more than 400,000 Lebanese children have been displaced from their homes, according to the UN children’s agency.
Friedman also falsely credits Trump as the “rare American president” who formed a detailed plan for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. But this so-called peace plan, called “Peace to Prosperity,” gave Israel the right to annex 30 percent of the West Bank where most Israeli settlers live, with the remainder of the territory becoming a demilitarized Palestinian state. Trump proposed that the Palestinians would be compensated for the loss of territory by receiving land from Israel’s Negev Desert, and that Gaza and the West Bank would be connected by roads and tunnels. Imagine any Israeli government accepting the idea of a tunnel under Israel linking Gaza and the West Bank.
The religious right dominates the Israeli government, and has no interest in a two-state solution. There is even speculation in Israel that the Netanyahu government will move to formally annex the West Bank in the near term in order to stop any speculation regarding a two-state solution. This step would end any possibility that any Arab state, particularly Saudi Arabia, would contribute to the rehabilitation of Gaza. Throughout the West Bank, moreover, Arab communities are currently facing violent attacks from Israeli settlers as well as Israeli police and security forces. The Nakba of 1948 lives on, still taking Palestinian lives and settlements.
The naming of Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and prominent Christian Evangelist, as the ambassador to Israel does not suggest that the Trump administration will have any interest in a two-state solution. Huckabee not only opposes such a solution, but he says there is “no such thing as the West Bank” and “no such thing as settlements.” He prefers the Israeli ultra-Orthodox terms for the West Bank, which are “Judea” and “Samaria.” And he refers to the illegal settlements as “communities,” “cities,” or “neighborhoods.” Maybe Friedman doesn’t understand that Trump made his position clear in his debate with President Joe Biden when he said that America should let Israel “finish the job” in its war with Hamas.
The capstone to this Orwellian language is Huckabee’s claim that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian,” which too many Israeli prime ministers, including Golda Meir, also believed. Many of Trump’s other appointees are one-sided supporters for Huckabee’s beliefs as well as for Israel’s genocidal military campaign that has killed so many innocent civilians, particularly women and children.
According to Friedman, the revival of the Trump plan “would signal to Iran that Trump intends to isolate Tehran militarily—and diplomatically—by…helping realize the ‘Palestinians’ legitimate desire for self-determination.” Friedman’s endorsement of a hard-line stance toward Iran, which echoes the hard-line positions of both Trump and Netanyahu is additional evidence of the columnist’s failure to understand the policies that are not working in the Middle East. At a time when it is possible to begin a dialogue with Tehran, Friedman is supporting militarized policies that have failed. The Persian Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, are reaching out to Iran. The United States should be telling the Israelis that we will be doing so as well.
Friedman believes that, if Trump returns to his “detailed plan for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians,” he could be “remembered as the president who preserved Israel as a Jewish democracy and helped to securely birth a Palestinian state alongside it.” It’s more likely that there be more support for an Israeli Prime Minister, even one who has been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In an unprecedented action against a pro-Western official, the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Citing testimony from journalists in Gaza, who have become Israeli targets, the judges said there were “reasonable grounds” that Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas.
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