I (a Jewish atheist) have been called an anti-semite and a follower of the Z.O.G. conspiracy theory by the pro-Israel crowd here for saying that politicians kow tow to political groups like AIPAC. Well now Thomas Friedman is saying the same thing:
O.K., Mr. Netanyahu has a strategy: Do nothing vis-à-vis the Palestinians or Turkey that will require him to go against his base, compromise his ideology or antagonize his key coalition partner, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an extreme right-winger. Then, call on the U.S. to stop Iran’s nuclear program and help Israel out of every pickle, but make sure that President Obama can’t ask for anything in return — like halting Israeli settlements — by mobilizing Republicans in Congress to box in Obama and by encouraging Jewish leaders to suggest that Obama is hostile to Israel and is losing the Jewish vote. And meanwhile, get the Israel lobby to hammer anyone in the administration or Congress who says aloud that maybe Bibi has made some mistakes, not just Barack. There, who says Mr. Netanyahu doesn’t have a strategy?
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Friedman goes on to explain that Israel is to blame for this crisis:
What could Israel have done? The Palestinian Authority, which has made concrete strides in the past five years at building the institutions and security forces of a state in the West Bank — making life there quieter than ever for Israel — finally said to itself: “Our state-building has not prompted Israel to halt settlements or engage in steps to separate, so all we’re doing is sustaining Israel’s occupation. Let’s go to the U.N., get recognized as a state within the 1967 borders and fight Israel that way.” Once this was clear, Israel should have either put out its own peace plan or tried to shape the U.N. diplomacy with its own resolution that reaffirmed the right of both the Palestinian and the Jewish people to a state in historic Palestine and reignited negotiations.
Mr. Netanyahu did neither. Now the U.S. is scrambling to defuse the crisis, so the U.S. does not have to cast a U.N. veto on a Palestinian state, which could be disastrous in an Arab world increasingly moving toward more popular self-rule.
Clearly Thomas Friedman is an anti-semitic Z.O.G. conspiracy nut.
11:06 AM PT: Just like to point out this article comes on the heels of Israel forcibly "relocating" Bedouins from their homes to make room for settlers. From Haaretz:
The Civil Administration is expected to begin forcefully moving Bedouin in the West Bank to a permanent location as part of a plan to remove all the Bedouin in Area C (under both Israel's civilian and military aegis) from lands they have been living on for decades.
The plan will eventually relocate Bedouin living in other areas of the West Bank. According to various calculations, some 27,000 Bedouin live in the West Bank, mostly in Area C.
The first to be relocated will be the approximately 2,400 Bedouin living in an area east of Jerusalem, which will make it easier for Israel to implement its plan to expand the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim and other settlements to create contiguity of construction for Jews up to Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/...