In a column on June 10 in The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman did not just criticize Israel but Jews worldwide. In so doing, he managed something masterful, meaning more evil than even the “best” antisemites, he blamed Jews for the antisemitism visited on them.
He wrote that Jews are “complicit” in “the widening moral stain of Israel’s military campaign,” and that “Jews worldwide better prepare themselves … [for] the backlash against Israel and Jews everywhere [that] could be profound.”
Make no mistake, Friedman is saying the evil that Jews deserve all that is coming their way, same as they deserved the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust in Europe and countless pogroms throughout the ages. Same as they deserved on Oct. 7.
As morally bankrupt as Friedman is, his basic premises are wrong.
First, he said Hamas is no longer a military threat. Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the terror group has continued to launch rockets into Israel. It still controls and “governs” Gaza. It, of course, also maintains the desire to destroy Israel and kill all Jews, just as it did before Oct. 7.
Second, his entire “analysis” is premised on Hamas voluntarily “leaving the strip” and “returning all remaining living and dead hostages.” Who knew all Israel needed to do was ask Hamas to leave and return the hostages, and there’d be peace?
Israel only went back into Gaza in May precisely because Hamas has not left and continues to say it’s not leaving. Of course, if Hamas put down its weapons and released the hostages, Israel would happily retreat. But if Israel put down its weapons, there would be no Israel.
Next, Friedman said that Hamas “always has been a cancer on the Palestinian people,” yet he failed to state that they were elected by them. He also failed to note that the majority of Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank, support Hamas and its actions.
Friedman ended his piece by saying “those who support Palestinian statehood” should “denounce Hamas across the world, on college campuses and in high-profile demonstrations.” That’s nice, but since Oct. 7, there’s been no mainstream Arab or Muslim protest against Hamas. It’s been the polar opposite, and that was long before Israel’s recent military campaign.
Of course, even if every Jew walked out of Israel today—simply abandoning it with a gift-wrapped bow—antisemitism would only get worse, not better. As British leaders Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain can attest, appeasement enables, not disables, hate.
Friedman ultimately has things backward. The very thing he claims that he wants—the hostages returned and Hamas eliminated—requires Israel to do what it’s doing. If he thinks Israel withdrawing from Gaza today will get the hostages back or Hamas to leave, then he’s mistaken.
But Friedman knows all this.
He knows there are 57 Muslim-majority countries, more than 1,000 times Israel’s size. He knows that if Israel, with one of the world’s strongest militaries, is indeed a “Zionist, colonialist, occupying empire,” then it wouldn’t be the minuscule size of New Jersey. He knows that with a more than 3,000-year continuous presence in Israel, Jews are the indigenous people of Israel, having been there long before there were Muslims or even Christians.
This writer knows exactly what he’s doing and saying, which, in this case, is blaming Israelis and, more generally, Jews for the hatred suffered upon them. In that respect, he’s acting as an antisemite’s best friend.