Israel Matzav

Tom Friedman's gall has no bounds

Tom Friedman, who has probably done as much or more to harm Israel than any mainstream media reporter, ,has the unmitigated gall to call Israel's ally, Sheldon Adelson, Iran's best friend.

And now Iran has an ally: Sheldon Adelson — the foolhardy Las Vegas casino magnate and crude right-wing, pro-Israel extremist. Adelson gave away some $100 million in the last presidential campaign to fund Republican candidates, with several priorities in mind: that they delegitimize the Palestinians and that they avoid any reference to the West Bank as “occupied territories” and any notion that the U.S. should pressure Israel to trade land for peace there. Both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney took the money and played by Sheldon’s rules.

In case you missed it, the R.J.C., the Republican Jewish Coalition, held a retreat last weekend at an Adelson casino in Las Vegas. It was dubbed “the Sheldon Primary.” Republicans lined up to compete for Adelson’s blessing and money, or as Politico put it: “Adelson summoned [Jeb] Bush and Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey, John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin to Las Vegas. ... The new big-money political landscape — in which a handful of donors can dramatically alter a campaign with just a check or two — explains both the eagerness of busy governors to make pilgrimages to Las Vegas, and the obsession with divining Adelson’s 2016 leanings.

Adelson personifies everything that is poisoning our democracy and Israel’s today — swaggering oligarchs, using huge sums of money to try to bend each system to their will.

Christie, in his speech, referred to the West Bank as “occupied territories” — as any knowledgeable American leader would. This, Politico said, “set off murmurs in the crowd.”

Some Republican Jews explained to Christie after he finished that he had made a terrible faux pas. (He called something by its true name and in the way the U.S. government always has!) The West Bank should be called “disputed territories” or “Judea and Samaria,” the way hard-line Jews prefer. So, Politico reported, Christie hastily arranged a meeting with Adelson to explain that he misspoke and that he was a true friend of Israel. “The New Jersey governor apologized in a private meeting in the casino mogul’s Venetian office shortly afterward,” Politico reported. It said Adelson “accepted” Christie’s “explanation” and “quick apology.”

Read that sentence over and contemplate it.

I don’t know if Israel has a Palestinian partner for a secure withdrawal from the West Bank, or ever will. But I know this: If Israel wants to remain a Jewish, democratic state, it should be doing everything it can to nurture such a partner or acting unilaterally to get out. Because, I’m certain that when reports about the “Adelson primary” reached the desk of Supreme Leader Khamenei in Tehran, a big smile crossed his face and he said to his aides: “May Allah grant Sheldon a long life. Everything is going according to plan.”

How many things does Tom have wrong here? The 'Palestinians' aren't going to vote Israel out of existence any time soon - even if they are given the 'right' to do so - so long as we don't flood the country with 'Palestinian refugees' as Tom would like us to do.

There aren't 2.7 million 'Palestinians' in Judea and Samaria - there are a bit more than half that number.

Judea and Samaria are not 'occupied.' They are at worst disputed. At best, they out and out belong to Israel because they were part of the original 'Palestine mandate' and were designated for close settlement by Jews as part of that mandate. From 1949-67 they were occupied by Jordan, an occupation that was recognized by precisely two other countries: Britain and Pakistan.

It's not up to the US government to pressure Israel to take risks to Israel's security. Israel has never asked the United States to fight its wars for it, and Israel never will.

There is no 'Palestinian partner for peace' now and it is unlikely that there ever will be one. Acknowledging that reality could be the first step in Tom Friedman's road to recovery from his delusions.

Labels: Chris Christie, demography, Jewish anti-Semitism, New York Times, occupation, Sheldon Adelson, Tom Friedman

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:32 PM