A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said on Tuesday regarding the anarchists’ Day of Disruption: “We urge authorities to protect and respect the right of peaceful assembly. It is clear there is significant debate and discussion in Israel on the proposed plan. Such debates are a healthy part of a vibrant democracy.”
The spokesperson should have talked to the poor police horse that was punched by a protester, following which the horse slipped on the cobblestone pavement and collapsed on its mounted policeman.
NY Times pundit Tom Friedman wrote on Tuesday: “If you want to get just a whiff of the tension between the U.S. and this Israeli cabinet, spearheaded by extremists, consider that hours after Biden mentioned to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria just how “extreme” some of Netanyahu’s cabinet members were, one of the most extreme of them all, the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told Biden to butt out — that ‘Israel is no longer another star in the American flag.’”
It was Itamar Ben Gvir, one of the despicable and extremist members of Netanyahu’s government, a government supported by 54% of the voters (64 out of 120, I did the math).
This is where Friedman pulled the good old rich Uncle Sam card, because, honestly, there aren’t any others: “According to a 2020 Congressional Research Service report, Israel has received the most US foreign assistance of any country in the world since World War II, at $146 billion, not adjusted for inflation. That’s quite an allowance and one that might have merited a little more respect for the US president from Ben-Gvir, who in his youth was convicted of inciting racism against Arabs.”
Have you noticed, when leftists are upset at Israel, they all turn into Karens? I was half expecting Friedman to demand to talk to the manager.
The basics: in the Camp David Accords of September 17, 1978, Israel agreed to hand back to the aggressor, Egypt, a swath of land that was triple its size, the Sinai, in exchange for a signed piece of paper that promised Egypt would no longer try to murder every living Israeli. It was a touching document, even though Israel has managed for 45 years to impose the same deal on the other aggressor, Syria, without having to give back squat.
But there was a problem: since the 1967 victory, the Sinai served as a vast training ground for the IDF and the IAF. Giving it back introduced huge costs, both immediate and ongoing. The Carter administration had a solution: the US would pay Israel $3 billion annually to defray those costs. Since then, the basic amount has not varied or adjusted for inflation. Only in 2016 did the Obama administration revamp the aid agreement, raising it to $3.8 billion annually for ten years, which will come to an end in 2027.
In return for its cash, the US was able to push the Soviet Union out of the Middle East and remain the sole superpower in the region for 40 years. It also imposed its will on Israel on a variety of security issues, including killing a warplane project that would have out-performed what the US had to offer in the 1980s. The US is also able to restrict Israeli ties with China. It’s a good relationship, which would have continued uninterrupted had President Biden not been pushed by the leftists in his party to join the effort to topple the Netanyahu government.
According to Friedman, the Biden administration’s outrageous interference in Israel’s internal politics, to the point of threatening to keep it out of US deals with Israel’s mortal enemy Iran, is all born out of love. “US diplomats … find it hard to believe that Bibi would allow himself to be led around by the nose by people like Ben-Gvir, would be ready to risk Israel’s relations with America and with global investors, and WOULD BE READY TO RISK A CIVIL WAR IN ISRAEL (sic.) just to stay in power with a group of ciphers and ultranationalists.”
On the way, Friedman lies without shame, writing that “Netanyahu’s ruling coalition … squeaked into office by the narrowest of margins.” Seriously? Israel’s 36th government, with Naftali Bennett (sporting 6 Knesset seats) was approved by the Knesset with a 60-59 majority. In comparison, Netanyahu’s current 64 seats offer a luxurious majority. We all knew Tom Friedman was not the brightest light in the 242 W. 41st Street windows, but did you know he was also a liar?
You know, I never was a fan of Donald Trump, but today I am looking forward to his getting the nomination and trouncing the semi-coherent Uncle Joe and his VP whom I trust even less.
Friedman is asking one cogent question, even though he introduces it as a threat: Why should the US continue to defend the idea in the UN and the International Court that Israel is just temporarily occupying the West Bank — and therefore is not practicing some form of apartheid there — when this Israeli government appears to be openly hellbent on annexing the West Bank and has given two of the most active annexationists, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, extensive security and financial powers over settlements in that region?”
The answer is, in this reporter’s opinion, that it shouldn’t. Israel has to annex Judea and Samaria, possibly creating independent Arab cantons ruled by the heads of large municipalities such as Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Jenin. They will be autonomous, and enjoy an infusion of Israeli funds and know-how, provided that they help root out the terrorist elements. That’s it. No more two-state.
Israel’s Gross Domestic Product at the last count (2021) was $488.5 billion. It’s probably hovering around half a trillion by now. Should the US decide to stop living up to its 1978 commitment and terminate its foreign aid to Israel, the only ones who will suffer would be the employees of the military-industrial complex plants on Long Island and in Washington State and between.
Tom Friedman, the NY Times, and the Democratic Party must understand that with every passing year, there are going to be more right-wing Israelis and fewer folks whose revolutionary great-grandparents came from Russia at the turn of the 20th century. The new Israel is heavily populated by traditional and religious Jews, and as the late great John Lennon put it: “the dream is over.”
