Author and political commentator Thomas Friedman exorciated Israel’s new government in an opinion article published in The New York Times on Tuesday, claiming that he feared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his “extremist coalition “will turn Israel into an “illiberal bastion of zealotry.”
Friedman wrote that US President Joe Biden should intervene in the Israeli government’s plans for judiciary reforms since its outcome would be “right out of the Turkey-Hungary majoritarian playbook.”
According to Friedman, Biden needs to tell Netanyahu: “I need to know if you really are going to put your courts under your political authority in a way that makes Israel more like Turkey and Hungary, because I will not be a patsy for that. I need to know if your extremist ministers will change the status quo on the Temple Mount. Because that could destabilize Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and the Abraham Accords — which would really damage U.S. interests. I will not be a patsy for that.”
Friedman ends by stating: “Israel and the U.S. are friends. But today, one party in this friendship — Israel — is changing its fundamental character. President Biden, in the most caring but clear way possible, needs to declare that these changes violate America’s interests and values and that we are not going to be Netanyahu’s useful idiots and just sit in silence.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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16 Responses
The owners and board members in Nyt are useless idiots
In the US Supreme judges are also elected by the politicians!
And is their interference into Israels internal matters any different to Russians meddling in US elections?
And Thomas Friedman portends that Obama and his Veep are still in office. This Brandon was Hussein’s Veep but he ain’t no Hussein Obama.
I agree. They should declare they won’t be useful !d!○t$. Everyone know they are useless !d!○t$.
Thomas Friedman’s sister and her family are Lubavitcher chasidim. She covers her hair and is gantz frum. Apparently, Thomas’s heart has not yet been touched by the Torah.
Leftist Jews seem to have thought that the skyrocketing birthrate among the Orthodox would never actually result in a sea-change in Israeli politics. But alas, it is happening. Did they really think Israel would remain a left-of-center democracy for all time?
Hashem has been moving the pieces on the geopolitical chessboard with unfathomable wisdom. He is preparing the way for the Ge’ulah. This is undeniable. The increase in Torah observance and the reclamation of Torah values among Israelis is the biggest nightmare for the leftists. But they cannot stop the will of the Almighty.
No rantings and recriminations of the leftists do can stem the tide of the incipient Redemption of the Jewish People.
friedman, your not prside3nt so go
Friedman is a roidef and must be treat accordingly
Friedman has no voice. Biden has no brains
Friedman your sisters eyes to you will be enough. Buried you will be
What an idiot. In the U.S., justices and judges are appointed by elected politicians, unlike in the sicko Zionist entity, where they are appointed by a self-propagating judiciary. (Not that the entity would be less sicko or less Zionist if they did it the American way, just saying.)
Although Friedman is not correct at all, I do believe that it is important that the government must proceed cautiously and do whatever possible within reason to ensure they are not seen as another fundamentalist state. It is interesting that Friedman says that Israel cannot become fundamentalist, but he doesn’t write pieces showing disdain for Arab fundamentalist states.
Chayalah: Friedman has a mixed recent history on how to balance U.S. and Israeli strategic interests in the Middle East. He (along with a large percentage of American and Israeli Jews) support some of Netanyahu’s national security policies but strongly oppose some of his coalition commitments regarding “judicial reform” and treatment of secular jews in EY and the U.S. Friedman has been outspoken in his criticism of U.S. politicians on BOTH sides for their failure to take action against the Saudi leadership after the Kasshogi murder especially with respect to a legal opinion from the Biden Justice Department that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman held immunity over his alleged role in the assassination.
Anito and Sara Rifka
Anito and Sara Rifka: Be careful. Those who make violent threats against other yidden with whom they may politically disagree often sadly discover the that their boomerangs seem to reverse course with tragic consequences.
Thomas Friedman is very comfortable in his 1929 germany house and his spewing is lefty rhetoric comfortably…. for now.
It is only a matter of time before some cosmic political shift brings Ovens to the US. Sadly, that is our history. Why wait to have to escape by the skin of our teeth?
Germany seemed like a nice place to be in the 1920s. Jews had their money and mansions and culture.
Frum Yidden from all over the world come join me in israel. it is amazing here to be on the world stage voting for smotrich and helping set the course of history. Come now while all is Free and fight the lefty friedman rhetoric by moving to the holy land. While you still can.
Dorah,
Anti-semites like Friedman can always be relied on to criticize Israel at every opportunity and quisling, mah-yofisnik’s like you can always be relied on to defend them. I hope you share the same place in eternity with him. You probably think I just gave you a bracha.
If Friedman had lived during the time of the Shoah he would be the president of the Judenrat. He should be considered a modern-day KAPO. He obviously wants to weaken Israel considerably.