Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Jews, Israel and America
New York Times ^ | October 24, 2004 | Thomas L. Friedman

Posted on 10/24/2004 12:05:36 PM PDT by baseball_fan

I was speaking the other day with Scott Pelley of CBS News's "60 Minutes" about the mood in Iraq. He had just returned from filming a piece there and he told me something disturbing. Scott had gone around and asked Iraqis on the streets what they called American troops - wondering if they had nicknames for us in the way we used to call the Nazis "Krauts" or the Vietcong "Charlie." And what did he find? "Many Iraqis have so much distrust for U.S. forces we found they've come up with a nickname for our troops," Scott said. "They call American soldiers 'The Jews,' as in, 'Don't go down that street, the Jews set up a roadblock.' "

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Israel; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cbsnews; iraq; scottpelley; thomasfriedman; thomaslfriedman
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last
Friedman makes the argument that the "Israeli Hezbollah," Sharon's designs on the West Bank and inept American diplomacy regarding the Israeli/Palestinian issue are unifying enemies around the world, and that Yitzhak Rabin's vision was the correct one. He also makes the point that it is in the interests of those who are fighting us in Iraq to blurr distinctions at America's peril. "This trend has been helped by the Bush team's failed approach to the Arab-Israel problem, which is to tell the truth only to Yasir Arafat, while embracing Ariel Sharon so tightly that it's impossible to know anymore where U.S. policy stops and Mr. Sharon's begins." As such, he is calling on more American leadership to help resolve the dispute before extremists get more worldwide momentum.

It seems like it always falls to President Bush who is doing his best just to get re-elected. Could Tom Friedman call on the American Jewish community to bring pressure to bear on Sharon and the "Israeli Hezbollah" as he calls it to help protect Bush's flank given how much he is trying to do to stand up a democracy in Iraq? Maybe this is already happening, in which case it makes it more understandable for Thomas Friedman to go back and reexert pressure on the President after helping to organize the political cover for President Bush to do so. Short of this, he would seem to be making the argument to elect Senator Kerry. Not knowing the details, who knows what the real answer is?

1 posted on 10/24/2004 12:05:36 PM PDT by baseball_fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan

I'm pretty sure our Soldiers have "pet names" for some of the Iraqis also...Most streets are two ways.


2 posted on 10/24/2004 12:15:49 PM PDT by Dallas59 ("A bad peace is even worse than war" -Taticus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan

Rabin had the correct view? Is this the same Rabin that fired on (and sank) the Altalena with M. Begin on board, and full of weapons that could have been used to defend Israel in the 48' war of independence? Is this the same Rabin who was willing to give up Judea and Samaria, and even contemplate turning over Jerusalem itself? Make no mistake about it, Friedman is a sellout. It's only fitting that he's working for the NY Times.


3 posted on 10/24/2004 12:27:13 PM PDT by TapTheSource
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan
Boy isn't it amazing. Freidman comes up with an Anecdote that supposedly justifies his opposition to the liberation of 25 million Iraqis. Gee Funny how Friedman does tell us WHO calls us "The Jews" Could it be the guys who staffed Saddam's rape rooms? Or maybe it is the guys who line up mothers holding their babies and machine gunned them into ditches. Or maybe it the thugs who ambushed 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers made them lie on the ground and shot them in the back of the head? Gee maybe we are being called "the Jews" by the guys who went thru Bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan.

What this supposed Foreign Policy "genius" Freidman seems to miss is that the Arab Terrorists have an almost irrational fear of "the Jews". One way during he 1990s US Intelligence broke terrorists was by threatening to "Turn them over to the Jews" if they didn't talk to us. So being compared to "The Jews" is GOOD news for our guys.
4 posted on 10/24/2004 12:34:16 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Vote Bush 2004-We cannot survive a 9-10 President in a 9-11 World)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan
Boy isn't it amazing. Freidman comes up with an Anecdote that supposedly justifies his opposition to the liberation of 25 million Iraqis. Gee Funny how Friedman does tell us WHO calls us "The Jews" Could it be the guys who staffed Saddam's rape rooms? Or maybe it is the guys who line up mothers holding their babies and machine gunned them into ditches. Or maybe it the thugs who ambushed 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers made them lie on the ground and shot them in the back of the head? Gee maybe we are being called "the Jews" by the guys who went thru Bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan.

What this supposed Foreign Policy "genius" Freidman seems to miss is that the Arab Terrorists have an almost irrational fear of "the Jews". One way during he 1990s US Intelligence broke terrorists was by threatening to "Turn them over to the Jews" if they didn't talk to us. So being compared to "The Jews" is GOOD news for our guys.
5 posted on 10/24/2004 12:34:40 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Vote Bush 2004-We cannot survive a 9-10 President in a 9-11 World)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan
And it's partly because the Bush team, which is so inept at diplomacy, has never had the energy or creativity to shape a better Palestinian alternative to Arafat.

More global-testing, put-our-faith-in-diplomacy flaccidness. The fact is, the war against Israel is very popular in Palestine. How is it that some stuffed-shirt State Department types are going to change that elemental fact?

6 posted on 10/24/2004 12:49:29 PM PDT by kezekiel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dallas59

"Haji" is the term of choice, I understand.


7 posted on 10/24/2004 12:50:03 PM PDT by kezekiel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan
the Israeli far right - the Jewish Hezbollah.

Tom is off his meds again. Where's the video of the "Jewish Hezbollah" beheading people?

8 posted on 10/24/2004 12:55:09 PM PDT by Alouette (Back from vacation, tanned, rested, and ready!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 1bigdictator; 1st-P-In-The-Pod; 2sheep; 7.62 x 51mm; A Jovial Cad; A_Conservative_in_Cambridge; ...
Gee Funny how Friedman does tell us WHO calls us "The Jews" Could it be the guys who staffed Saddam's rape rooms? Or maybe it is the guys who line up mothers holding their babies and machine gunned them into ditches.

Maybe it was the prisoners at Abu Ghraib who had panties placed on their heads.

I ask all FReepers to pray for the safety of my son in the IDF, who is on duty in the Jordan Valley.

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

9 posted on 10/24/2004 12:57:37 PM PDT by Alouette (Back from vacation, tanned, rested, and ready!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: TapTheSource
Friedman is a sellout. It's only fitting that he's working for the NY Times.

Actually I think he's working for the Saudis.

10 posted on 10/24/2004 12:59:14 PM PDT by Alouette (Back from vacation, tanned, rested, and ready!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan

Regrettably, this is just more brain-addled, Muslim-appeasement drivel from Mr. Friedman. It is the usual porridge of lefty arguments: Americans in Iraq are bad; Jews in the West Bank are bad; its Israel-US's fault that the Muslim terrorists hate us; and if only the US would pull out of Iraq and if only Israel would agree to make itself defenseless to the PLO thugs, all would be right again in the Middle East.

Looks like TF took a three month sabbatical and came back just as biased and as antagonistic to Israel and the Bush administration as when he left.

So what else is new, I guess.


11 posted on 10/24/2004 1:21:46 PM PDT by UncleSamUSA (the land of the free and the home of the brave)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alouette

Prayers offered for your son - - -


12 posted on 10/24/2004 1:28:08 PM PDT by Twinkie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: MNJohnnie

That Freidman is a useful idiot is a given. But it's also true that Americans are the new Jews in the eyes of an envious, embittered, dog in the manger world. How dare we have a robust economy? How dare we work hard and enjoy individual freedoms? How dare we be happy and creative? The Jews made the desert bloom when Arabs preferred to sit around, whine, and beg for handouts. Americans are the new Jews and wear the label proudly.


13 posted on 10/24/2004 1:29:33 PM PDT by hershey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: hershey
The Jewish vote - If not now, when?
14 posted on 10/24/2004 1:34:54 PM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: hershey
Americans are the new Jews and wear the label proudly.



I can live with that. A man is noted for the quality of his friends as much as the caliber of his enemies.

USA Fiends, Israel, Great Britain, Australia, Poland, Italy, Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria

Enemies. France German, Iran,
15 posted on 10/24/2004 1:37:40 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Vote Bush 2004-We cannot survive a 9-10 President in a 9-11 World)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MNJohnnie

"Enemies. France German, Iran"

Don't forget about Russia.


16 posted on 10/24/2004 2:06:26 PM PDT by TapTheSource
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: TapTheSource

Enemies. France German, Iran"

Don't forget about Russia

Nope. Russia isn't our enenmy. They got their own Islamic Terrorist threat. Putin said he hoped Bush got re-elected. We may diagree on tactics but Russia agrees the war should be fought.


17 posted on 10/24/2004 2:14:57 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Vote Bush 2004-We cannot survive a 9-10 President in a 9-11 World)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: MNJohnnie

"Nope. Russia isn't our enenmy. They got their own Islamic Terrorist threat."

So do France and Germany (not to mention the rest of Europe). That doesn't make Russia our friend. The Russians worked against us just as hard (actually more) than France and Germany during the lead-up to Gulf War II.


18 posted on 10/24/2004 2:41:45 PM PDT by TapTheSource
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: MNJohnnie; hershey; gcruse; UncleSamUSA; Alouette; kezekiel

(a) Is Friedman making the argument that a global intifada is developing - the mirror image of Sharon associating America's war on terror with Israel's struggle against Palestinian suicide bombers - only now it is America's presence and influence in the Middle East that is resented?

(b) Is this isolating America now along with Israel?

(c) Might this isolation in the world that Kerry talks about become one of the key issues leading to the President's defeat?

(d) Would Kerry who is more associated with European and U.N. opinion have a different policy regarding the Middle East and Israel/Palestinians?

(e) Is there a danger of this global intifada irrationally morphing into a modern nazism via Al Qaeda?

(f) Would the American Jewish community work to give Bush some political cover in isolating what Friedman considers political extremism, thereby countering Kerry's charge of increasing isolation?

(g) If it is not considered political extremism on the part of Sharon and the "Jewish Hezbollah" as Friedman calls it, how do you see this global intifada playing itself out? Only after the standing up of democracies in Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea and a Palestinian state?

(h) As such does Israel want to be known as in the front of this movement of liberation and democracy, one step of which is gaining regime change from Arafat and fair elections among the Palestinians?

Thanks


19 posted on 10/24/2004 3:31:14 PM PDT by baseball_fan (Thank you Vets)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: baseball_fan

Don't waste your time asking questions about Tom Friedman's article. Everything he says is B***S***


20 posted on 10/24/2004 3:34:32 PM PDT by Alouette (Back from vacation, tanned, rested, and ready!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson