A Letter to Thomas Friedman

A Letter to Thomas Friedman in Response to his NY Times Column: Amsterdam Is About Jew Hatred — and Gaza, 11/13/24

Instead of quoting Ehud Olmert, disgraced former Prime Minister of Israel, why don’t you just own your own opinion, Tom? Anyone reading your columns knows that blaming Jews or Israelis for antisemitism is a standard part of your journalistic kit.

Israel could stop waging war against terrorism tomorrow and the antisemites would still gleefully hunt Jews around the world. They’ve been doing it for countless years-before Gaza, before “settlements,” before the First and Second World Wars, before the Reformation, before the Crusades. This is hardly the first pogrom.

You want Israel to create a “day after” for Gaza? How about starting with the world community pressuring Hamas and Hezbollah to stop murdering Israelis and free the hostages? Or even just the 20+ Arab nations who refuse to welcome Palestinian refugees? Wouldn’t that be a good start?

Or should Israel look to America’s “reconstruction” of Iraq as a model? Despite being far more powerful and wealthy than Israel, American efforts there have not exactly been a shining success story.

The other difference between an Israeli “day after” and ours in Iraq and Afghanistan (shameful) is that America wasn’t experiencing daily bombing and murderous assaults by terrorists from those countries in America! Israeli citizens suffer daily attacks within its own borders. As someone once said, America can be understood in 4 words, “ocean, ocean, Canada, Mexico.” Unlike Israel, we are not surrounded by terrorists.

So far, no nation wants to tackle Gaza’s reconstruction until Israel succeeds in ridding it of Hamas. But they want Israel to do it “surgically.” A bit of a double bind there. And yet, worldwide military opinion is that the IDF is, to the greatest extent humanly possible, doing exactly that.

So far, no nation, not America, not the UN, not even those rich Arab oil states which, unlike Israel,  need not concern themselves with daily genocidal strikes from Iranian proxies,  has come forward with a reasonable suggestion for Gaza’s day after. Only Israel is expected to come up with the plan…while engaged in the existential defense of its own country.

So far, no nation has offered to help reconstruct Israel’s “day after.” Who will pay to rebuild the cities destroyed along Israel’s northern and southern borders? Who will secure Israel against the terrorists who rule the West Bank? And who will provide psychological care for Israel? In 2023, Israel was voted among the top five of the world’s happiest nations. Does anyone worry how Israel will overcome its profound and pervasive trauma?

Israeli children, like Gazan children, are also traumatized by war.