Haaretz and US Ambassador to Israel Slam Each Other
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Haaretz got the best of the exchange. US ambassador to Israel David Friedman is a Ziofascist extremist, an Islamophobe opposed to just peace.
He’s an orthodox Jewish bankruptcy attorney, earning a fortune from the misery of others, supporting lawless settlement expansions and annexation of stolen Palestinian land.
Earlier he served as president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions, an organization involved in raising millions of dollars annually for the orthodox settlement by that name near Jerusalem.
Haaretz explained “(p)laques bearing Friedman’s name and those of other family members appear on buildings in the settlement, including a school built illegally on private Palestinian land. He also gave money to settle Jews in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.”
He wholeheartedly backs Trump’s lawless recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s exclusive capital.
He’s dismissive about Palestinian statehood, claiming “(n)obody really knows how many Palestinians live there.”
Over five million Palestinians live in the Occupied Territories, plus millions of diaspora refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other countries.
Friedman rejects Palestinian self-determination “without the approval of the Israelis. This is an issue that Israel has to deal with on its own because it will have to deal with the consequences,” he claimed.
He shamefully calls Israel a robust democracy. “The Israelis have to make the decision on whether or not to give up land to create a Palestinian state,” he believes.
It’s not an “American imperative for it to be an independent Palestinian state.”
Trump “feel(s) no pressure to make self-defeating concessions” to Palestinians. “America and Israel will enjoy unprecedented military and strategic cooperation, and there will be no daylight between the two countries.”
From Truman to Trump, US administrations supported Palestinian subjugation, not liberation, notably under occupation since June 1967.
Friedman slammed Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy for criticizing his donation of an ambulance to the Har Bracha settlement.
“What has become of Haaretz,” Friedman tweeted, adding: “Four young children are sitting shiva for their murdered father and this publication calls their community a ‘mountain of curses.’ Have they no decency?”
Levy wrote “(w)ith Friedman’s ambulance or without it, Har Bracha (literally, ‘Mountain of Blessing’) is a mountain of curses.”
“It was a settlement established, like all the others, to poke a stick in the Palestinian eye and drive a stake into any chance of an agreement. A provocation.”
“In the case of Har Bracha, the stick in the eye is palpable; it overlooks Nablus and threatens its development. Because of Har Bracha, Nablus periodically turns into a prison.”
Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken backed Levy, saying he’s “right. As long as the policy of Israel – that your government and yourself support – is obstructing (the) peace process, practical annexation of the (West Bank and East Jerusalem) territories, perpetuating apartheid, fighting terror but willing to pay its price, there will be more Shivas.”
Shiva is a traditional week-long Jewish mourning period first-degree relatives observe for a deceased family member. The ritual is called “sitting shiva.”
Friedman is part of the problem in Occupied Palestine, one-sidedly supporting Israeli ruthlessness, uncaring about fundamental Palestinian rights.
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