The latest column by Thomas L. Friedman stands as a metaphor
for what is wrong with the ideology they call Jewish, and what is wrong with
the movement they call Zionism. Friedman is basically saying that the Jews and Israel are the
icons of everything that's good and splendid on this planet despite the fact
that nothing has worked for them since their respective beginnings.
Lest you believe this is an abstract concept, remember what
happened to Israel 's
Prime Minister, the late Ariel Sharon when he fell ill. They injected him with
a blood thinner that caused him to bleed at the brain, generating the
complications that incapacitated him, and kept him in that condition till he
died.
But how did the Jews and the Israelis spin the story? They
said that the Jewish doctors in Israel
who treated him did such a tremendous job thinning his blood; they thinned it
better than anyone else could have. In fact, they were so successful, the
patient died. And this is why they thought they ought to be admired.
I, for one, do not admire them, and let me tell you why. I
am lucky I was not given a dose of Jewish medicine eleven years ago when I had
my heart attack and was injected with the correct dose of blood thinner nicknamed
“blood clot buster.” I am now alive and breathing and grateful that no Jew was
around to do on me the tremendous job they did on Israel 's
Sharon .
As to the Tom Friedman article – which came under the title:
“Telling Mideast Negotiators, 'Have a Nice Life,'” published on October 28,
2015 in the New York Times – it is constructed around the same principles of
spin which sent the Israeli Prime Minister to his grave. In fact, Friedman
argues that everything about Israel
and the Jews is good and splendid, except that nothing is working for them.
For example, speaking of the Jews whom he mentions in the
article, he calls important, the book that was written by Dennis Ross, and
calls very decent, the defense minister of Israel , Moshe Ya'alon. Whereas he
wants to see an American official say publicly to the president of the
Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas: “You rejected Ehud Olmert's offer … Why do
you just sit there like Buddha,” he wishes that a Netanyahu aid would quietly
whisper in his boss's ear he is “probably historically false.”
In fact, Friedman wrote his article based on what came in
two Jewish publications, the Jerusalem Post and the Dennis Ross book. What came
in the first is the usual Jewish argument to the effect that years ago, the
Israelis made a generous offer to the Palestinians; an offer that was never
discussed publicly then but one that was rejected by the Palestinians. At times
they may even add, this is because the Palestinians never miss an opportunity
to miss an opportunity.
As to what came in the Dennis Ross book, this is what
Friedman says: “on the eve of the 1991 Madrid
peace conference … the Palestinian delegation had raised some last-minute
reservations with secretary of State James Baker. He was livid, and told the
Palestinians: With you people, the souk never closes, but it is closed with me.
Have a nice life.”
This is supposed to have happened away from the cameras and
the microphones a quarter of a century ago – revealed only now by a guy whose
credibility is said to be worth exactly two and a half ounces of dog poop.
In fact, the only thing that James Baker did was to go on
camera and publicly shout his frustration at the Israelis, telling them he is
done with them. They know his telephone number, and when they decide to get
serious, they can call him. That was also the time that America refused to extend to Israel the
usual loan guarantees. Nothing was said publicly about the Palestinians, and
nothing was done to pressure them.
Poor Thomas Friedman, by the time he got to the end of his
article, he must have felt he had nothing that would make the Israelis and the
Jews look like the good and splendid things he pretends they are. And so he
decided to add one last stroke to the deceptive canvass he is painting.