Yes, it’s true. Thomas Friedman—the guy who said we should invade Iraq “because we can”—has written a brilliant column, “Bibi Netanyahu Makes Trump His Chump”, whose first two paragraphs read as follows:
“For those of you confused over the latest fight between President Obama and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, let me make it simple: Barack Obama and John Kerry admire and want to preserve Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in the Land of Israel. I have covered this issue my entire adult life and have never met two U.S. leaders more committed to Israel as a Jewish democracy.
“But they are convinced — rightly — that Netanyahu is a leader who is forever dog paddling in the middle of the Rubicon, never ready to cross it. He is unwilling to make any big, hard decision to advance or preserve a two-state solution if that decision in any way risks his leadership of Israel’s right-wing coalition or forces him to confront the Jewish settlers, who relentlessly push Israel deeper and deeper into the West Bank.”
As Friedman goes on to point out, while Obama and Kerry labor to bring water to quench this fire, Donald Trump comes bearing five-gallon jerry cans of gasoline, in the form of ambassador-designate to Israel David Friedman, who makes Bibi Netanyahu look like John Kerry.
All in all, it’s been a banner week for AV punching bags. George F. Will (the “F” being short for “Fine Fellow”) has a brilliant column on the utter uselessness of protectionism, with both his heart, and his data, in all the right places. George even goes so far as to criticize Ronald Reagan! (The heavens really swayed for that one!) And Ross Douthat provides a sadly perceptive take on all the possible ways the incoming Trump Administration could go south. So when Trump trundles us all off to Hell, there won’t be a lacking of voices saying “You’re going the wrong way!”
Afterwords
For all the mean things I’ve said about Tom, George, and Ross, click on the tags below. For more common sense on Israel, check out Gregg Carlstrom in Politico and Henry Siegman at the National Interest. For more common sense on a lot of things, check out Daniel Larison in The American Conservative.
