“We put
together a platform that frankly, by a wide
margin, is the most pro-Israel of either party
in the history of this country,” Friedman said
in the video of a private gathering on November
7. “There is no longer a reference to a
two-state solution… And most importantly the
Republican platform with respect to Judea and
Samaria — Israel is not an occupier.”
Friedman
elaborated: “Why would I want Israel to be
distracted by a two-state narrative that — for
whatever you think of it, whatever your hopes
might be for some time in the future — is going
absolutely nowhere right now.” He added that
Palestinian attitudes did not allow the
formation of a Palestinian state at this time
and “The last thing the Middle East needs right
now is another Arab dysfunctional state, which
is all that a Palestinian state would be.”
Friedman
said that peaceful coexistence with the
Palestinians would not happen in this
generation. “It’s not worth wasting anyone’s
breath on it right now, it’s not gonna happen.
It’s not in the interest of Israel and therefore
it’s not in the interest of the United States.”
CNN noted
that the video of Friedman speaking at the
event, which had been available on Facebook and
Vimeo, was taken down after it published the
story.
On J Street, which
Friedman has in the past called
“worse than kapos”
— the Nazi term for Jewish collaborators in
concentration camps — the potential envoy said
the group “is a great thorn in our side” and
does “tremendous damage because they purport to
speak for the Jewish people, and they don’t, and
frankly their board is more than half Arab. But
they are a dangerous, dangerous organization.
“When you
don’t support Israel, when you don’t support
traditional Jewish values, when you don’t view
the Torah as God-given legacy, no matter how
religious you are, if you don’t have those
views, you know you don’t really have much in
common,” he said.
“The
liberal Jewish community has not been a friend,
not been a pro-Israel force in this country,” he
added. “The danger of that community and the J
Street community is that it enables people like
[then Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary
Clinton to say: ‘What are you talking about. I’m
not anti-Semitic, I’m not anti-Israel, I’m
supported by two thirds of the American Jewish
community.’ And she’s not wrong when she says
that. And that’s an issue and we face it
everyday and it’s not getting any better.”
Friedman
also repeated a false claim that Clinton’s
longtime aide Huma Abedin had ties to the Muslim
Brotherhood.
|
Not For Profit - For Global
Justice
|
Friedman was
heckled during
a stormy confirmation
hearing
last Thursday, in which he walked back some of
his previous statements and expressed support
for a two-state solution. The nominee apologized
for his “kapo” statement on J Street,
though the Israel director
of the group has rejected the apology
as insincere.
Liberal
Jewish groups and past US ambassadors have
spoken forcefully against the nomination of
Friedman, who has been a vocal supporter of
Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“You do
not represent us and you will never represent
us,” chanted Jewish activists who disrupted the
proceeding. They blew a shofar, a ritual horn,
and called him a “war criminal,” before being
escorted out by police.
Last week
the Reform movement became the largest Jewish
body to oppose the nomination of Friedman.
In a
statement released last Friday, one day after
the launch of Senate hearings to confirm
Friedman, Union for Reform Judaism President
Rabbi Rick Jacobs said Friedman is “the wrong
person for this essential job at this critical
time.”
The
statement said Trump’s longtime bankruptcy
lawyer lacks the qualifications for the
position, noting he has never been involved in
professional foreign policy issues “other than
as a zealous partisan and financial supporter of
settlement activity.”
Friedman
serves as president of American Friends of Bet
El Institutions, which supports a large West
Bank settlement.
“Mr.
Friedman’s views on key issues suggest he will
not be able to play a constructive role,” said
the URJ statement, which was signed by the
leaders of its main clergy as well as
congregational and membership bodies. “The US
Ambassador to Israel has the important
responsibility of advising, shaping, and helping
implement the president’s foreign policy goals.
Indeed, it appears that Mr. Friedman’s extreme
views on key issues related to the two-state
solution, Israel’s borders, settlements, and the
location of the US Embassy are already reflected
in the White House. Such positions are
detrimental to peace and a strong US-Israel
relationship.”
Also last
week, following the release of a letter from
five former US ambassadors to Israel urging the
Senate to reject Friedman’s nomination, the
Zionist Organization of America released a long
statement accusing the former envoys of being
“hostile to Israel.”
The five
signatories – Thomas Pickering, Daniel Kurtzer,
Edward Walker, Jr., James Cunningham and William
Harrop – damaged US-Israel relations and
exacerbated the situation in the Middle East,”
the ZOA said in its statement.
JTA
contributed to this report.
