I don't often read Tom Friedman in The New York Times. True, he is one of the most lucid writers in America and his crystal-clear prose help in understanding some of the world's most intractable conflicts. But he can also be repetitive, tiresome, and a little bit too in love with his own ideas for my tastes. Still, as a triple winner of the Pulitzer Prize he is a man of considerable influence.
He is always lecturing Israel. If only the Jewish state would listen to his recurring advice, manna would again rain from the heavens, the dead would be resurrected, and the Arabs would welcome Israel with daises and lilies.
Friedman is, of course, entitled to his view. But he is not entitled to slander Israel. And this past Sunday he did so with relish.
In words that blur the line between commentary and defamation Friedman wrote of the "brutality of Israel's retaliations" against Hezbollah and Hamas, and how Israel "chose to go after them without being deterred by the prospect of civilian casualties." He then crossed a line of common decency when he irresponsibly accused Israel of using "Hama rules" in its war against the twin terror groups. "Hama Rules," he explained, "are named after the Syrian town of Hama, where, in 1982, then-President Hafez el-Assad of Syria put down a Muslim fundamentalist uprising by shelling and then bulldozing their neighborhoods, killing more than 10,000 of his own people."
This is a straightforward blood libel. To accuse Israel of indiscriminately murdering thousands of civilians the way the butcher Assad did in Hama is to equate a democratic state whose actions are open to international media and scrutiny and constant judicial review with a bloodthirsty dictator and tyrant who held on to power without any restraint of law. In his book From Beirut to Jerusalem Friedman himself writes that he had heard through friends that Assad's brother, Rifaat al-Assad, had boasted that the Syrian government had killed 38,000 people in Hama. Is he seriously suggesting that Israel has ever been guilty of anything remotely approaching such wholesale slaughter?
In accusing Israel of the murderous immorality of Syria, Friedman has severely compromised his credibility and objectivity as an honest and fair-minded journalist. He is being dishonest and he knows it.
Israel is at the forefront of world militaries in trying to always diminish the civilian casualties of war. When it came to Hezbollah and Hamas, Israel endured years of provocation as both terror groups fired thousands of rockets at hospitals, schools, and homes before Israel decided that no nation could long endure with its civilian population living amid such staggering death and fear. Only then did Israel invade. Even then, while Hezbollah and Hamas launched their rockets from nurseries and infirmaries, Israel behaved with unparalleled restraint, doing everything in its power to forewarn civilians of coming offensives and then using state-of-the-art munitions with laser-like precision to reduce, as much as humanly possibly, collateral civilian casualties.
How does Friedman propose Israel fight Hezbollah and Hamas, two of the world's most blood-thirsty terror groups, who pride themselves on dismembering innocent civilians? The United States rains hellfire missiles on Taliban and Al Qaida leaders in Afghanistan on a regular basis, blowing them to smithereens along with their wives and children. On May 21st the United States blew up from the air Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the number three leader of Al Qaida. Killed with him was his wife and three children. Man, that's kinda' brutal. Three innocent children who never did any harm to anyone killed by an American attack. Friedman never condemned the attack.
Perhaps its because he sensibly understood that terrorists purposely travel with civilians and have contempt for the lives of even their own children. Yazid knew he was a marked man. He could have left his children in safety. But he banked on the belief that the US would not touch him as long as his kids were around. But President Obama rightly understood that in this case it was a choice between his children and American children, that if this terrorist continued to live Americans would continue to die. I believe you will never see Friedman pen a column suggesting that America is an immoral power because it attacks terrorists undeterred by considerations of civilian deaths because he knows that even for a New York Times readership there'd be hell to pay. But like so many Jewish apologists who are ashamed of what the tiny Jewish democracy must do in order to simply survive, he judges Israel by impossibly high, and usually double, standards.
Want to talk about brutal, Tom? In Operation Gomorrah of July, 1943, the United States Air Force and the RAF carpet-bombed Hamburg killing roughly 50,000 civilians and practically destroying the entire city. The bombing created a whirling updraft of super-heated air bringing about a 1,500-foot-high tornado of fire that incinerated thousands of civilian non-combatants. Then, in February, 1945, when Hitler and Germany were already headed to certain defeat, the United States Air Force and the RAF sent 1,300 heavy bombers over Dresden, dropping 3,900 tons of high-explosives that destroyed nearly the entire city center and killed approximately 250,000 civilians. Six months later, on August 6th and August 9th Harry Truman ordered the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 90,000-166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000-80,000 in Nagasaki.
Now, where is Friedman's column condemning Roosevelt, Truman, and Churchill as monsters who ordered attacks on Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan "without being deterred by the prospect of civilian casualties." If Friedman ever writes that column I'll eat my yarmulke. The triumvirate are today regarded as three of the greatest statesmen of the twentieth century. Why would highly moral men have ordered the indiscriminate destruction of so many innocent lives? Because they were fighting an evil that had no precedent and they had to make a terrible choice between the lives of their own countrymen and the lives of the civilians of enemies sworn to the destruction of Western democracy. They put their own countries and the freedom of the West first.
Israel, possessed of nuclear weapons and one of the most powerful air forces in the world, has never even contemplated carpet-bombing any Arab city, irrespective of the horrendous civilians losses it has itself endured from sixty years of non-stop Arab aggression. It continues to bury a steady steam of civilians and soldiers when, if it truly wished to employ Hama rules, the war in the Middle East would have ended long ago.
You're better than this Tom and you owe Israel an apology. Be man enough to write it.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach hosts 'The Shmuley Show' on WABC, 770 AM in NYC. As founder of This World: The Values Network, his most recent book is "Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life." His website is www.shmuley.com. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
Follow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiShmuley
Thomas L. Friedman, internationally renowned author, columnist, three times Pulitzer Prize recipient and author of five bestselling books, among them From Beirut to Jerusalem and The World Is Flat.
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/
Rabbi Shumley Boteach attacks Mr. Friedman for no other than speaking his mind frankly in a well articulated article devoid of any false statements where Mr. Friedman simply reiterates generally held public views regarding recent Middle East events. I do believe the Rabbi owes Mr. Friedman and apology for his defamation attempt.
The inhumane recent acts of aggression by the Israelis against Lebanon and Gaza are well documented. Contrary to all available evidence and historical accounts, Rabbi Shumley falsely claims that Israel, used discretion in its attack. One does not have to go far to find the truth, indiscriminate bombing, massive air strikes and artillery fire on heavily populated areas in Lebanon for 34 consecutive days where cluster bombs were used are well documented resulting in 1,500 Lebanese civilian deaths compared to 44 Israeli civilian deaths from rocket attacks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Lebanon_War
Air strikes on Gaza followed by a ground invasion where white phosphorus was used in heavily populated civilian areas. 13 Israelis killed compared to 1,417 Palestinians and an inhumane siege violating 1977 amendment to the Geneva Conventions protocols prohibiting collective civilian punishment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War
American Journalist, author and war correspondent Chris Hedges condemns Israeli Gaza massacre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjBttx6Gd2c
Rabbi Shumley’s Article:
Rabbi Shumley accuses Tom Friedman of the New York times of crossing the line of common decency, defamation, slander and blood libel in accusing Israel of ruthless attacks against Hamas and Hezbollah using the “Hamas rule” approach named after the Syrian town of Hama where late Syrian President Hafez Assad bulldozed resistance elements indiscriminately killing 10,000 civilians. The Rabbi concludes his article by asking Mr. Friedman for an apology.
1- Rabbi Shumley draws contrast between the Israeli “humane” approach of invasions of Lebanon and Gaza and the “butcher like” approach of Hafez Assad in Hama accusing Mr. Friedman of hypocrisy seriously jeopardizing his credibility with this comparison.
2- The Rabbi stresses that Israel takes great pains to minimize collateral damage by using only state of the art weaponry with laser like precision additionally citing that invasions of Gaza and Lebanon took place only after Israel endured painful years of rocket attacks.
3- Rabbi Shumley stresses that Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists have contempt for the innocent lives including their own children citing the recent killing of Al Qaeda Mustafa Al-Yazid who put his wife and children in harm’s way using them as human shield during the US attack.
4- Rabbi Shumley goes on to enumerate war casualties from Allied Forces bombing of Hamburg in WWII and US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians concluding that these attack were necessary for the forces of good to combat evil.
Mr. Friedman’s article – War, timeout, war, time…..
A well articulated report where Mr. Friedman summarizes Israel/Arab history to have consisted by a series of periods of war followed by periods of prosperity.
1- Mr. Friedman summarizes three recent short wars contributing to ongoing prosperity in Israel. A first war to dismantle the corrupt Arafat regime followed by a second short war where Israel mercilessly pounded Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon for thirty days followed by a third war where Israel crushed Hamas and their rocket wielding capability in Gaza.
2- Mr. Friedman compares the Israeli approach to that of late President Hafez Assad of Syria who crushed resistance element in his own Hama killing 10,000 residents in the process.
3- Mr. Friedman outlines that Israel was successful in winning conventional wars against Arabs as shown in 1948 and 1967 but is currently fighting a much less desirable insurgency war necessitating high collateral damage resulting in very bad publicity.
4- Mr. Friedman contrasts recommendation by Ehud Barak for Israel to takes “daring and assertive political initiatives” to advance the peace process to Netanyahu grudgingly accepting the idea of a two state solution in a speech under pressure from President Obama.
5- Mr. Friedman recommends that Israel buys the next period of prosperity with sincere peace efforts transferring control of major Palestinian West Bank towns to the Palestinian Authority when the partial settlements freeze expires in September as the risks for yet another Israeli offensive are staggering.
Clarification: Linkage in the Rabbi’s article is to Mr. Friedman’s beautiful article “The real Palestinian Revolution” and not the “War, timeout, war, time…..” article Rabbi Shmuley Boteach apparently found offensive.
Mr. Friedman’s article – The Real Palestinian Revolution.
A compelling article where Mr. Friedman praises recent economic developments by the Palestinians citing this approach as the better roadmap to peaceful coexistence with Israel as an independent state than the conventional rebellious approach by the Palestinians.
1- Mr. Friedman praises Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, former World Bank economist for establishment of a highly successful Palestinian Stock Exchange and a real Palestinian Security forces admitted by high Israeli officials to have permitted taking down most check points in the West Bank.
2- Mr. Friedman, condemns the classical Arab approach of a "Palestinian Victim State" and necessity for an armed struggle to restore Arab dignity, and confirms that Arab eyes are on the new approach by the Palestinian Authority ready to declare it a failure unless concrete results with Israel are achieved.
3- Mr. Friedman cites an article from the Haaretz newspaper articulating that a sound Palestinian economic solution is undesirable as it deprive right wing Israeli settlers from ongoing excuses to continue residence in occupied Arab land.
4- Mr. Friedman urges Prime Minister Netanyahu upon meeting with President Obama to concede further Israeli development in the West Bank when the partial freeze on settlements expires in September to give the Palestinian Authority a chance to show success.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNsX9oMedB0
Ooops! Now what are you gong to spin and lie about?
Something of similar caliber?
Frankly, I do not owe a terror supporter any "definitions".
There is just one point I must agree with you.
My country from Germany, Japan (two nuclear bombs Hiroshima, Nagasaki), to Vietnam, to Iraq starting a war on false pretenses, which is a war crime in itself. Finally, with Nato in Afghanistan war crimes are still going on. Yes we did.
When we look in the mirror we are pretty much alike. We disturbed the peace in the world, but in defense of my country we are not doing Aparthied yet, but we surely support it by our complicity at the UN and funding your wars and the blockade by both Egypt and Israel.
As for Friedman which I have no more respect for, he was one of the foremost columnist pushing for the war in Iraq until he was arguing we made a mistake in going to war. Besides, Israel was all in favor and pushing the US to attack Saddam. At the time and for years Israel said that Iraq was the biggest treat to their existence. After all, you should embrace Friedman he did you a big favor.
Now Israel is pushing for an Iran war (our Neo-Cons are all for it), next it will be Pakistan, next.....
BTW, I hate it when my country lies to me and I want my country to return to what it was a long time ago and respect the Geneva convention. I do not want my country to be Israel twin.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5575070.ece
Randomly shooting over the boarder at Palestinians, is really trying to minimize deaths.
Oh- and things like this-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW1-_JmXQt0&feature=PlayList&p=E1F6339D3CD7E74F&playnext_from=PL&index=5
An innocent woman is killed accidently, and a participating soldier says he doesn't know why he's there, maybe cleansing the area. (And it was filmed by the Israeli media, just wasn't supposed to be aired.)
And it scenes like this where a Nobel Peace Prize winner is shot in the leg, by soldiers on the other side of a fence, for doing NOTHING wrong- that doesn't help Israel seem like the people in charge cares at all about the brutality it's forces can inflict.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnu5qPXEmkc&feature=PlayList&p=E1F6339D3CD7E74F&playnext_from=PL&index=4
The Israeli army has some of the best technology available. If they wanted to, they could minimize civilian casualties- but just look at the numbers
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/mostly.html
There is no reason for this, no reason for so many civilians to be targeted... It's a disgrace, and I for one am grateful that what's been going on over there for decades is finally getting out.
However, the Israeli troops do the same thing- except, they're in uniform. I think not wearing uniforms is the least of the charges on there- especially since the Israelis aren't up against another army.
If you look, there's plenty of video of Israeli soldiers using Palestinian kids as human shields... and it seems to me that YOU are the one who's trying to say it's ok if one side does it over the other.
This article is talking about the Israeli government actions, which ends up hurting many civilians in the process. Those videos I posted showed people going out of their way to, in fact, injure civilians.
I'm not condemning any murder of innocent civilians, however, it seems to me that you are.
Israel and Israelis ?
"Splashed across the front pages of the second largest Israeli newspaper " says your second link
Its NOT getting out ... it is exactly what it is. An occupation of people who's leadership does not dare to make any deal for fear of the lives of its people from the same people who blow up Mosques, kill Muslems daily, and threaten anyone who disagrees with them ...
Your boogey man is Islamism and not Israelis who are merely defending themselves and their people against this ongoing threat
Keep dreaming. And keep on spinning. Anyone reading Israeli news understands that they are terrified of what is going to happen next.
How many civilians died in Iraq in 8 years of conflict?
How many Palestinians were murdered by Palestinians in the last 3 years?
How many Muslims were killed by Muslims in the last 8 years?
when these questions are answered, The last question is, Why only the Palestinians who got killed by the Israeli's are worthy of your "concern"? You don't need a dictionary to define the meaning of the word "hypocrisy" and "selective conscience". Just surf this thread.
Now to the topic at hand, the reason why most rational people have sympathy for the Palestinians is because of the way Israel has abused their position in that area for many years. I have sympathy for ALL innocent people who are killed or maimed because of whatever conflict.
Israel has been the aggressor in this dispute since day one; have the Palestinians been completely innocent? No, but Israel has caused the situation with their actions and stubborness to debate. They skillfully put the onus on the Palestinians as the ones who won't come to the table but if we look at the whole issue, Israel are being the bully here....in my opinion.
We didn't sympathise with Nazi Germany during the war because they were the aggressors, that's how it works for me anyway.
Israel do not have any more rights than the Palestinians to that land and since NATO divided it up in 1948 (In Israel's favour I might add) they have constantly pushed the envelope ever since.
No its not. The reason is misinformation and the inclination to believe anything anti Israel and everything pro Arab
Israel the aggressor?
How many thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns before Israel responded?
You tell me with a straight face that any other country on earth would have waited that long and had that sort of measured response and I'll show you a liar
The double standards in this debate are
"Israel is at the forefront of world militaries in trying to always diminish the civilian casualties of war."
Just unbelievable that an Israeli still believe this. The last two days of the Israel/Lebanon war Israel carpeted Lebanon with cluster bombs. Israel had asked the US the latest new cluster bombs and the US refused because Israel had still some old stocks. The decision was made by Israel to carpet Lebanon in order to get rid of the old stock. Every day in Lebanon there is still people getting hurt or killed by the unexploded bomblets.
From the Haaretz, an IDF commander: "Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets."
If you do the math each cluster bomb contain 666 bomblets if they do not explode they are left on the ground for a child that will play with it thinking it is a toy.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/idf-commander-we-fired-more-than-a-million-cluster-bombs-in-lebanon-1.197099
Are you taking about when Israel drop flyers a couple of hours before they bombed the skull out Off Gazans which had nowhere to go because all borders were closed? Gaza is one of the most densely populated area in the world. They are packed on each other.
Not only did they lose the Second Lebanon War (see the Winograd Report), but it was also the start of a real slide in the world's opinion of Israel and how it acted on the world's stage.
Those cluster bombs will haunt Israel forever.
Israel also broke the ceasefire with Hamas on the eve of US General elections.
All these current events these days are simply being covered by too many people for you to be able to use the old ruses.
But keep at it, you are mildly entertaining...
http://i45.tinypic.com/n3x3sn.jpg
If this review were done by the UN, only vetoes by the US prevent international sanctions against Israel for violating international law (war crimes etc).
Tell the truth, Rabbi.
BTW here is the link to the Haaretz article; hardly an anti semitic publication.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/idf-commander-we-fired-more-than-a-million-cluster-bombs-in-lebanon-1.197099