Applaud him or curse him, NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman’s surprisingly candid comments on the Iran war deserve consideration. Friedman, who won two Pulitzer Prizes reporting on the region, is Jewish. In a podcast with NY Times Opinion editor Dan Watkins, he said:
“When you think of where Israel was 15 years ago in America and where it is across these 15, 16 years that Netanyahu has been in power, it’s one of the greatest disasters for the Jewish people.
“Netanyahu’s policy right now is that we’re going to kill our way to peace. We’re going to not stop in Lebanon until we’ve killed all of Hezbollah’s fighters. We’re going to take over the demilitarized zone in Syria. We’re going to remain in permanent war against Hamas.
“And people in my right-wing government, says Netanyahu, are basically engaged in a project of quiet ethnic cleansing in the West Bank to drive as many Palestinians as they can into Jordan to turn Jordan into a Palestinian state.
“Think for a second, Dan, what Israel is sacrificing. If it actually had a different policy, one of at least trying to forge a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority, albeit a reformed one, we wouldn’t be having the primary we’re having in New York today, where it’s a competition of who can bash Israel the loudest.
“Israel could have normalization with Saudi Arabia. Israel could now have peace with Lebanon. It could have peace with Syria.
“American Jews and Jews all over the world have to stop and think what this Israeli government is trading away by not having an approach for peace with the Palestinians – how they are imperiling the future of Israel and the future of Jewry all over the world.”
“Trump invited in Bibi Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. He was in the Situation Room… Netanyahu then brings onto the screen the head of the Mossad, and the Mossad tells Trump that through aerial bombing, they can decapitate the regime and trigger a popular uprising in Iran.”
“And, of course, none of that happened.”
“Trump didn’t even have in the room his energy secretary or his Treasury secretary. And his own experts, the director of the C.I.A., called the Israeli idea farcical, and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, reportedly called it b…s….”
“Dan, I’ve been covering the Middle East my whole adult life, almost 50 years. I’ve actually learned something observing the Mossad. If you want someone assassinated in Beirut or Tehran, Dan, call the Mossad. If you want to understand political and social trends in Beirut or Tehran, do not call the Mossad, OK?
“The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice” – Proverbs 12:15.
Crawford is an author and syndicated columnist from North Jackson.
3 comments:
Bill Crawford is a disaster for Mississippi people.
His analysis deserves serious consideration. Even Trump is shaking his head in response to Bibi's (short for Benjamin) strategy by calling him nuts. I am a Christian who has been imbedded with the IDF Navy and AF after eight trips there, but 20 years ago.
Bibi Netanyahu is a disaster for the Muslims and their Democratic ilk who want the Jewish race exterminated.
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