Tom Friedman: 'Many people in the US are fed up with Israel'
In an interview broadcast on Saturday, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman told Israel's Channel 2 television that many people in the United States are fed up with Israel. New York Times opinion columnist Thomas Friedman said that many Americans are becoming "fed up" with Israel. Friedman's comments came in an interview with Channel Two reporter Dana Weiss aired on Saturday.Admittedly, I live in Israel. My sense is that Americans are fed up with the 'Palestinians' more than with Israel. In any event, I don't plan to commit suicide - or to advocate that my country do so - because Americans are 'fed up' with Israel. But I'm sure I'll get comments from people who think I should do just that - in a week or so when my regular readers have long moved past this post.
Friedman stated that while the American public was by no means anti-Israel, they no longer care about the Israeli-Arab conflict and this could eventually hurt Israel's national security interests, as the US is Israel's only friend.
Friedman added that he believes Israel is not doing the utmost to promote renewed peace talks with the Palestinians. Friedman derided Israel's calls for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish State in exchange for a renewed freeze on construction in the settlements that could revive peace talks. He jokingly said that Israel is asking for "Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to sing Hatikva [Israel's national anthem] in perfect Yiddish."
The New York Times columnist also lamented the fact that young American Jews are drifting away from Israel.
Friedman's comments followed a controversial op-ed entitled "Just Knock it Off" that appeared in Tuesday's New York Times in which he said "Israel today really is behaving like a spoiled child."
Exit question: How many Americans who don't read the New York Times are fed up with Israel? I would bet it's not too many.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:11 AM
12 Comments:
Only a hand full, I would think.
America is fed up alright. they are fed up with the New York Times. No one is reading it. It is on life support from some Labanese guy named Carlos Slim who owns Telecom Companies in Mexico and Central America. The rates of this Telecom are the worst proportionately to income in the world. Essentially you are listening to a voice that is the equivalent to the public relations of your worst enemy. They even have Lebanese tourist ads in the Magazine section... I recorded that on video. This man is very out of touch. He speaks for the same Corporate types who are finding loopholes for multinational companies like Google, facebook and the rest of communications. These people in these positions are notoriously out of sync with what the people think. I'm not saying the public is right or genius, but they are not reading the New York Times and anything written their is ignored. The few people who do swallow the ravings of the paper are dedicated with religious fervor, but they scare most of us in America
The question is.....how many people in America are fed up with Tom Friedman?
Can you spell "kappo"?
Both Friedman and the Times should ver geharget.
Sorry, I have no patience for either.
The New York Times is unqualified for even lining a birdcage.
Tom Friedman? The guy who thinks the People's Republic of China is a model for the US on "how to get things done"? The guy is a joke.
Tom has blitherlingly marched on past self-parody to punchline status. Polls reveal that Israel stil remains far more popular than, well, President Obama. Really. And if not, how much would it matter? The question isn't, alas, what the nations think Israel should or shouldn't do with the Palis but whether they can or they can't be relied upon. During the Al Asqa intifida nobody was trying to shoot out the windows of Tom's home or blow up his living room and today nobody is hurling bricks through his car windows. There are just so many "resets" possible before people move on.
So American Jews are fed up with Israel? Big deal, I already knew that.
The polls I've seen show Americans being more supportive of Israel than ever (almost record level support). The largest number I've ever seen in American polls for support of the "Palestinians" in recent years is 18%.
Thomas Friedman is fed up that Obama can't just wave a wand and "Yes, we can" his way through an impossible peace process and an impossible peace deal.
The Dems are also angry right now because they're on the defensive. Harry Reid is claiming that he saved the entire world from a massive depression and that the voters just don't know about it.
The Dems are hinting "stupid voters" all over the place.
Thomas Friedman would like to see Obama get a victory from Israel (freeze extention) in time for the elections. So he's got his baseball bat out.
Friedman hates Israel as much as Obama does. He's talking about himself and not the American people when he says "fed up."
As Shy Guy would say, most people in Israel are fed up with Friedman and Obama. They sick of being lectured to that they're spoiled and haven't sacrified enough for peace. Friedman has never gotten around to reading Dale Carnegie's classic, "How To Influence People And Make Friends." And he's not doing a very good job of it.
Let him keep it up!
Friedman is out of touch with the mood of Americans.
He's probably the only guy in the room who thinks Americans like the Obama Administration's "tough love" approach towards Israel.
Let's wait and see what happens here on November 2nd.
Heh
In the last poll taken 3 weeks ago we might see that Friedman quite exaggerate. The US public quite stable in its soft support of Israel against distrust towards the Palestinian Arabs.
http://www.committeeforisrael.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ECI-National-Poll-October.pdf
Post a Comment
<< Home