Credit David M. Friedman, our man in Israel, for his powerful bid to erode America’s support for Israel.
In so doing, he can be counted upon to become Rashida Tlaib’s and Ilhan Omar’s new best friend.
Oh, did someone say he is in fact continuing his ongoing efforts to bolster Israel? He has a funny way of doing it.
Invoking God as Israel’s ally is the swiftest way to alienate Americans and anyone else who would either back Israel or at least attempt to be fair in evaluating the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
That is what Friedman, Donald J. Trump’s choice as our ambassador to Israel, did. Anyone who takes Friedman seriously could determine that all staunch supporters of Israel are bonkers.
As reported by The New York Times, Friedman proclaimed on Tuesday: “Israel has one secret weapon that not too many countries have. Israel is on the side of God, and we don’t underestimate that.”
I am certainly a strong supporter of Israel, and I have criticized elements of the Netanyahu administration’s policies. I can list many arguments for backing Israel’s existence and most of its positions in its ongoing dispute with the Palestinians. Bringing God into it is not one of them.
For that matter, the Palestinians repeatedly invoke religion to back up their side. That alone precludes me from taking them seriously.
“As the ambassador of the far-right Orthodox Jewish community in the United States, Friedman’s comment makes sense,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, according to the Times. “As the supposed ambassador of the United States government and all its people, it is an extremely inappropriate comment.”
Israel’s best hope for good will from others depends on its own good will. So long as Israel and its supporters back their positions with rational arguments can Israel expect a fair hearing in the American and even international court of public opinion.
Conservative Christians and some Jews have often claimed that God reserved Israel for the Jews, which is nonetheless a minority. This is different. Friedman is our ambassador to Israel, who represents America. If he wants to uphold and expand Israel’s support among Americans, he will only use rational arguments no matter what he personally believes.
Many Americans are already dismissive of anything said by President Trump or members of his administration because of Trump’s thousands of lies. Friedman’s dependence on religion makes it worse for Israel.
Obviously, Friedman is playing to Trump’s base, a large segment of which backs Israel on the basis of biblical teachings. An Orthodox Jew who has long been a major donor to Israeli settlements on the West Bank, he made this and other comments during a gathering Tuesday hosted by an American evangelical group in Jerusalem to observe the anniversary of our embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Friedman’s speech plays right into the hands of advocates for the Palestinians like Tlaib and Omar, the two Muslim members of the U.S. House of Representatives who regularly bash Israel.
Palestinian officials Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat, who share long records for disingenuous statements about Israel, seized on Friedman’s words, according to the Times. “I can’t believe this extreme fundamentalist ideologue is an ambassador,” said Ashrawi, who is a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee. “The last time we had people thinking that way in Palestine was in the Middle Ages, and look at what happened.”
Erekat, the P.L.O.’s chief negotiator, added, “What ambassador Friedman is telling Palestinians, Christians and Muslims…(was) that God is against them.”
There are people still thinking this way, many for whom Ashwari and Erekat claim to speak. That would include Rashida Tlaib, who in the past week conjured up a story that the Palestinians protected Holocaust survivors and paid for it by losing their homes amid the establishment of the state of Israel.
I thought it important to remind readers of Tlaib’s latest ramblings, in case Friedman’s claim of religious justification caused any of you to forget.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World