Thomas Friedman

President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a dinner at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, March 9, 2010. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The waning days of the ‘special relationship’

The White House will not cut aid to Israel or stop cooperation overnight, but the day America treats Israel like any other country is nearer than we think.

By Meron Rapoport July 20, 2023

Donald Trump speaks during an election rally. (Max Goldberg/CC BY 2.0)

Trump’s America could end up looking like present-day Israel

Israel is a disturbing demonstration of how far violent intolerance involving ethnic and religious prejudice can go. Americans should be vigilant regarding any signs of this happening in the United States. By Paul R. Pillar One of the more pertinent observations about Donald Trump’s comment this week on what gun owners could do about a Hillary…

By +972 Magazine August 14, 2016

Yair Lapid on the Charlie Rose Show (Screenshot)

Lapid’s Passover prayer: Lord, get the Palestinians away

Finance Minister Yair Lapid, the great secular crusader, has finally found God. And he has but one thing to ask of Him. Finance Minister Yair Lapid, the moderate mainstay of Netanyahu’s right-wing government, published today a long, rambling post drenched in self-pity (typical enough, on the most reassuring of Jewish holidays). The post is titled “A…

By Dimi Reider April 14, 2014

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Stephen Hawking during the press conference at the National Library of France (Public Domain)

Consensus wisdom: The boycott of Israel is working

The only way to stop its spread is to end the occupation, say a growing number of prominent voices (none of whom, by the way, support the boycott). From reading my digital mail, I see that a lot of people who say they oppose the occupation also oppose the boycott against Israel, and not…

By Larry Derfner June 24, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on April 9, 2013. (photo: State Department photo/ Public Domain)

Blaming both sides reinforces the occupation

Western liberals know Netanyahu is the problem and Abbas isn’t, but their unwillingness to say so ends up achieving the opposite of their goal. There it was again, this time at the end of today’s (Thursday’s) New York Times editorial on Kerry’s “shuttle diplomacy.” After making it clear for the nth time that the…

By Larry Derfner May 30, 2013

Jeremy Ben Ami speaks at a J Street conference. (Jstreet CC BY NC SA 2.0)

J Street past, present and future: Let’s get on with it

While it will be a long wait for a safe consensus about this issue to emerge in Israel or in America, we need to treat the prospect of the end of the two-state solution as the five-alarm fire that it is. The question is whether the American administration has the political will to engage in…

By +972 Magazine May 2, 2013

Can nonviolence move the next century?

By Todd Gitlin I just returned to New York after visiting Belgrade, where I interviewed (among others) Srdja Popovic, a leader of the nonviolent Otpor movement that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, and now a lively, witty, imaginative advocate for nonviolent struggle against dictatorships everywhere. There’s a fine narrative of Otpor’s progress, and Srdja’s approach to…

By +972 Magazine June 7, 2011

Taking on Thomas Friedman over unarmed resistance

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times published an opinion piece last week in which he argued that the Palestinians need to embrace unarmed resistance. I wrote a letter to the Times gently telling Mr. Friedman that the Palestinian have already begun to embrace unarmed resistance. The New York Times did not publish the letter. Reading Thomas…

By Joseph Dana June 1, 2011

Israeli commentators go berserk at Thomas Friedman’s op-ed

In his latest column, New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman attacks Jerusalem’s response to the Egyptian revolution. Friedman’s bluntly expressed opinions were the catalyst for a torrent of angry comments. “Court Jew” was just one of the expressions used For about a year now, Thomas Friedman has been driving Israelis crazy. Ever time he mentions…

By Noam Sheizaf February 15, 2011

Did Israel offer the Palestinians a “great” deal?

Thomas Friedman is wrong: the “two-state” deal offered to Palestinian President Abbas by former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert was anything but “great” Thomas Friedman is a hack. But he is an influential hack. So maybe it is worthwhile rebutting a familiar claim he made in his recent column. Friedman is very angry at Netanyahu, for rebuffing…

By Roi Maor December 12, 2010

Ma’ariv on Thomas Friedman: Obama’s escort boy is jealous of Bibi’s career

Ma’ariv today launches a full-front personal attack on Thomas Friedman, going after the NYT columnist for his recent (too recent, but highly welcome) move to the moderate left on Israel-Palestine, and most especially for his criticism of Netanyahu. The high-pitched article, which gets a front-page lead and a two-page spread in the first pages of the…

By Dimi Reider November 15, 2010