JEWISH WORLD

JEWISH WORLD • JUNE 14-20, 2024 21 Army Colonel William Higgins. Peres, Shamir, and Rabin (their defense minister) were cowards, Friedman wrote in From Beirut to Jerusalem. Peres and Rabin were “moderates with no guts.” He and Shamir were “too frightened” to make more concessions to the Ar- abs. “Peres and Shamir, in other words, not only failed to lead,” he wrote, “they actually made the Is- raeli public dumb” because “they got them to believe” that creation of a PLO state next door was too risky. (pp.270-271) Shamir was prime minister in 1990 when Friedman orchestrated the stunt in which Secretary of State James Baker publicly accused the prime minister of not being “serious about peace.” Following Fried- man’s suggestion, Baker recited the White House phone number aloud, for Shamir to call when he changed his mind. There was a peculiar footnote to that particular episode. Nearly twenty years later, on November 7, 2009, Friedman wrote yet another column in the Times accusing Israel of not being seriously interested in peace. Benjamin Netanyahu hap- pened to be prime minister at the time. In his column, Friedman rec- ommended to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that she should “dust off James Baker’s line: ‘When you’re serious, give us a call: 202-456-1414. Ask for Barack.’ Otherwise, stay out of our lives.” Remarkably, Friedman did not acknowledge in that column that he was the one who was the original author of that sarcastic jibe. Instead, he pretended that it was “James Baker’s line.” Invoking the former Secretary of State gave the line more gravitas. And presum- ably, Friedman assumedmost Times readers would not realize that Baker had already revealed the truth in his autobiography, years earlier. F riedman’s ire was not reserved for Likud prime ministers such as Shamir, in 1990, or Netanyahu, in 2009; he did not hesitate to de- nounce Labor’s Peres when he served as prime minister in 1995- 1996. The Times columnist decried a Peres government strike against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, in which some civilians were inadver- tently killed, as “so out of propor- tion, its apology so lacking, its effect on Lebanon so devastating.” Friedman never liked Ariel Sha- ron, either, when he was prime min- ister under Likud or when he broke away to lead the country as head of Kadima. In one particularly acerbic column, on February 5, 2004, Fried- man asserted that Prime Minis- ter Sharon “had George Bush under house arrest in the Oval Office… surrounded by Jewish and Christian pro-Israel lobbyists, [and] by a vice president, Dick Cheney, who’s ready to do whatever Mr. Sharon dictates…” In that column, Fried- man claimed Sharon, Jewish lobby- ists, Cheney, and unidentified “po- litical handlers” were “all conspiring to make sure the presi- dent does nothing [concerning Isra- el].” If you didn’t know it had ap- peared inAmerica’smost prestigious newspaper, you might think such ugly talk of sinister Jews con- trolling the president emanated from some of society’s most unsa- vory corners. Perhaps the most remarkable chapter in Friedman’s history of verbally accosting Israeli prime ministers concerns the tenure of Ehud Olmert, whose policies and positions arguably were the most left-of-center of any Israeli leader in many decades. After years of rocket attacks on northern Israel, Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorists crossed the border on July 12, 2006, and kid- napped two Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Olmert responded by launching a full-scale air assault and ground invasion against Hez- bollah’s forces in southern Leba- non. Friedman demanded that Olmert stop short of defeating Hezbollah and instead put Israel’s trust in the creation of a new international force to guard its northern border. Friedman acknowledged, in a July 21 column, that “Israel does not like international forces on its bor- ders and worries they will not be effective,” but after all, who cares what Israel likes? Friedman urged the George W. Bush administration to press Israel to accept such a force, proposing it enlist former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush to orchestrate the effort. Five days later, Friedman chal- lenged Olmert again. Fourteen days of hitting Hezbollah had been more than enough: “Point made,” he wrote. There was no need for Israel to deliver a “knockout blow.” In- stead, “It is now time to wind down this war and pull together a deal — a cease-fire, a prisoner exchange, a re- sumption of the peace effort and an interna- tional force…” He also urged the Bush administration to re- cruit Syria (!) as part of this effort, in ex- change for negotia- tions over an Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights. Friedman’s rhetoric escalated in the days to follow. The region was descending into “mad- ness,” he wrote. Mus- lim terrorists were car- rying out atrocities in various countries, Friedman pointed out, including on his list “Israel retaliating by, at times, leveling whole buildings, with the guilty and the inno- cent inside,” as if Israe- li self-defense was the moral equiva- lent of the terrorist attacks he cited. (July 28) “Israel needs to get a cease- Friedman has been ]ilifying Israeli leaders from .olda Meir to 5etanyahu, under the prete_t that he ºcares.’ ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem,’ the 1989 book in which Friedman established himself as a fire and an international force into south Lebanon — and get out. Israel can’t defeat Hezbollah…” (August 9) The Israelis have “already inflict- ed enormous damage on Hezbol- lah,” he counseled. “[I]t shouldn’t throw more good lives after some elusive knockout blow.” (August 11) In Friedman’s recent fulminations against Netanyahu over Gaza, one can hear the echoes of his 2006 crit- icism of Olmert for killing civilians in Lebanon, his demand that Israel quickly retreat, and his warning against knocking out Hezbollah al- together. How does that advice look now, with Hezbollah many times stronger and firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily? And how safe will Israel be from future attacks from Gaza if it follows Friedman’s current counsel? One thing can be said about Thomas Friedman. In writing about the Middle East for more than four decades, he has been consistent and forthright: his problem is not Benja- min Netanyahu; his problem is Isra- el. Rafael Medoff is founding direc- tor of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.