TOM FRIEDMAN'S DECEPTIVE PLAN AND THE FRUSTRATING MIDDLE EAST

Tom Friedman is at his deceptive best today (Sunday November 8, 2009)writing his NY Times op-ed piece where-in he throws up his hands in seeming disgust with the lack of progress by the Arab-Israeli players in the interminable Middle East drama. Mr. Friedman, the notorious "liberal" Iraq-War supporter, and often considered "biased" as a commentator on the Middle East is good at this. His article calls for the west to "get out of the picture" and let the "players" get on with it, as he obscures underlying facts and ignores "the elephant in the room"-- our staunch support for only one of the actors in the controversy. In: "Call White House, Ask For Barak", November 7, 2009, NY Times, Friedman concludes that the "The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play. It is obvious that all the parties are just acting out the same old scenes, with the same old tired clichés — and that no one believes any of it anymore."(See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/opinion/08friedman.html)

Friedman states that for all our efforts in that region "the respective leaders continue with their real priorities — which are all about holding power or pursuing ideological obsessions — while pretending to advance peace, without paying any political price. ---Let’s just get out of the picture. Let all these leaders stand in front of their own people and tell them the truth: “My fellow citizens: Nothing is happening; nothing is going to happen. It’s just you and me and the problem we own.”

He adds, "Indeed, it’s time for us to dust off James Baker’s line: “When you’re serious, give us a call: 202-456-1414. Ask for Barack. Otherwise, stay out of our lives. We have our own country to fix. ----It’s time to call a halt to this dysfunctional “peace process,” which is only damaging the Obama team’s credibility.---If the status quo is this tolerable for the parties, then I say, let them enjoy it. I just don’t want to subsidize it or anesthetize it anymore. We need to fix America. If and when they get serious, they’ll find us. And when they do, we should put a detailed U.S. plan for a two-state solution, with borders, on the table. Let’s fight about something big.” (op cit).

Is Tom kidding us? He convieniently forgets that we are the Israeli facilitator. He begs that his readership has forgotten how we continuously support Israel in the UN with our veto power in the Security Council. How supply the billions of dollars annually to Israeli coffers each year to support their massive military. That we provide secret satellite imagery on their neighbors, and look the other way when they use that information to attack potential adversaries, or step out-side of the norm of international behavior in their treatment of occupied populations. Is he calling for us to abandon our policy of ignoring their nuclear arsenal, and protecting them from often-deserved criticism, of maintaining a cruel and inhumane blockade of Gaza, and most recently of supporting their efforts to bury the Goldstone Report? No mention of these issues in Friedman's piece. Does he urge us to change our behavior toward Israel? No these would remain in force as we "turned our backs". Friedman wants only to push these unfortunate facts under the rug and abandon our rightous effort to seek justice for the oppressed in Palestine.

However, Friedman's piece does have an element of truth in it.

A little benign neglect from the US would be good for the Israelis--- were we to really engage in such behavior. For all our efforts in that part of the world, we give but, unevenly---and hand out only lip-service for the Palestinians. Were we to actually "turn our backs" on the injustice in that part of the world-- the Palestinians would not miss our efforts. But Israel would! But that is not what Mr. Friedman is proposing here. Putting the problems of the region on the "back burner" while containing to support Israel (as we do now) would just maintain the status quo. The Mr. Netanyahu would be happy with that..his nation holds all of the pieces of the pie and have no inclination to share it. And we are helping them do it.

Were the US to actually rescind the "Israel support system" that tiny but powerful nation might actually be forced to consider peace as an alternative. But don't expect anything like that soon.

Get the picture?

rjk