Dear Tom Friedman,
Thanks for spending so much of your time thinking about possible solutions for us over here in Israel.
While I understand you feel strongly about the current Israeli government, and the insidious judicial reform creeping back into their agenda, and regardless of whether I agree with you on that, do you really think America should be dictating Israeli elections and policy? (Unlike everyone else in this part of the world, we are still a democracy.) The way a democracy works is, sometimes you have to abide by election results you don’t love. I’m sure no one in the US would understand that :)
(Also — while I totally support that the US doesn’t owe Israel arms or money, and that Israel could perhaps express its appreciation of such incredible US support in a less entitled way — I would also like to point out that, unless you are living in Israel, paying taxes in Israel, and risking your children’s lives by sending them, for several years, to the army in Israel — while we welcome your opinion, you don’t get a vote. It is not your life, not your children’s lives, on the line. We have to live with our mistakes in a way that you don’t.)
I agree with you about the Haredi draft dodging, though I’m not sure you can really blame the current government for that; it’s been going on for a long, long time.
And while I agree with your assessment that Israel will unfortunately soon be fighting a 3-front (at least) war, I’m unsure why you think a new government would deter that. Nor am I sure why you think withdrawal from Gaza will lead to peace with Lebanon. You say, “If Israel can end the war in Gaza, it can lead to a US-mediated deal with Hezbollah to quiet the northern border war.” Not only has Hamas made it pretty clear that they’re uninterested in the latest American plan to end the war in Gaza, Amos Hochstein, President Biden's Lebanon mediator, today declared negotiations with Hezbollah futile. (And if they were to now express interest in peace, should we believe they will miraculously be friendly? They attacked us in October with no provocation.) More than 200,000 Israelis are still displaced from their homes in northern Israel because of ongoing Lebanese aggression. How exactly will this putative peace occur?
You also seem to think Israel should hop back into bed with the PLO: You’ve been agitating for this solution since October. But the same way you declare “The Israel We Knew Is Gone,” the Palestinian Authority you (thought you) knew — the one which you say has accepted the Oslo peace accords — is long gone.
You say Israel should have done some “thinking” on October 7. You don’t explain what that thinking should have entailed. For many of us, the thinking we did was to conclude that our vision of peace and coexistence may not, in fact, be possible. We’re crazy idealistic optimists here, so that was indeed new thinking for most of us.
You say you want Sinwar back in charge of Gaza so he will be blamed when things go wrong. But I think you and I both know that when the water and electricity don’t flow, and the building materials don’t arrive, Hamas, Gaza, the UN, and the world, will all blame, not Sinwar, but Israel.
It’s nice that you think that the Gazans will pummel Sinwar, but the latest polls (like their predecessors) show no indication of this: 60-70% of Gaza supports Hamas’ October 7 massacre, and continues to strongly support Hamas. This despite Sinwar’s recent statement (as quoted in the Wall Street Journal), that “Tens of thousands of Gazan civilian deaths are a necessary sacrifice.” (Shouldn’t this statement alone disqualify him from leading Gaza?)
You want us to make a deal. But there is no way to make a deal with an organization whose purpose is to destroy you. One’s existence is not something you can negotiate.
That's what the West can't seem to comprehend. Israel could successfully negotiate with other Arab countries, because they weren't radical. But the Iranian axis — Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS — are not rational actors.
Since October 7, Hamas has told Israel repeatedly and explicitly that they plan to repeat October 7 again and again.
Maybe you think we shouldn’t believe them.
And Iran’s goal — whether you are listening or not — is an Islamic world.
Should we not believe them either?
Many of us here in Israel have a Holocaust legacy. Some of us have learned that when people say they want to kill you, they might be telling the truth.
*
Finally, you suggest that Israel voluntarily pull out of Gaza and be in a time-out.
Time-outs are what you give recalcitrant children to encourage better behavior.
It’s not what you suggest to your democratic ally, responding to terrorism on all sides in a hostile, antisemitic world.
Especially if you, like everyone else, seem intent on telling Israel how they’re handling it wrong, but don’t actually have any insight or suggestions on how to do it better.
I understand Iran is now nuclear. We’d love to hear those ideas of yours sooner, rather than later. We’re running out of time.
And unless you want to live in a caliphate - so are you.
You say that Israel cannot think straight while Hamas holds its people.
That may be true.
But sometimes I think we might be the only ones left who can.
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This is the photo of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu that ran in the New York Times. Am I the only one for whom this photo conjures up negative tropes about Jews and horns? Shame on you, NYTimes.
Fern, congratulations on hitting 1000! Glad to be part of this.
Friedman is a legend in his own mind.
Tom Friedman is an ass. Pay no attention to the fool. There’s nothing new here. I repeat myself but how about everyone read Jabotinsky’s “The Iron Wall” all 8 pages delivered almost exactly 100 years prior to October 7. Nothing new nothing.