The Latest Absurdities From the Columnists of the New York Times
Photograph Source: Haxorjoe – CC BY-SA 3.0
The two leading foreign policy columnists for the New York Times are Thomas L. Friedman and Bret Stephens, whose opeds are frequently apologies for Israeli policy. In the past week, both used the occasion of the death of Yahya Sinwar to make the futile case for “Build[ing] Peace from Sinwar’s Death” and marking Sinwar’s death as an “opportunity” for the dawn of hope,” respectively. Once upon a time, Friedman was an excellent correspondent in the Middle East, based in both Beirut and Jerusalem, and the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, which was an intelligent and thoughtful account of the region. Stephens has long been a right-wing apologist for Israel, once having served as the editor of the Jerusalem Post.
Both journalists argue that it is up to the Palestinians to take the lead in building a more politically moderate Middle East and to create conditions for the start of real diplomacy. Neither Friedman nor Stephens acknowledges the difficult task of getting access to a new Hamas leadership or the even more difficult task of getting a notoriously right-wing Israeli government to compromise on any aspect of an Arab-Israeli peace plan. Stephens risibly refers to the possibility of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “living up to his Churchillian self-image,” (whatever that could possibly mean).
Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times, October 2024:
“A reformed Palestinian Authority, with massive Arab and international funds, would attempt to restore its credibility in Gaza, and the credibility of its core Fatah organization in Palestinian politics—and sideline the remnants of Hamas.”
I would argue that the general consensus is that the Palestinian Authority is hopelessly corrupt to the core (helped to that condition by Israel), and there is no support for its president, Mahmoud Abbas.
“…the participation of a reformed West Bank Palestinian Authority in an international peacekeeping force would take over Gaza in the place of the Sinwar-led Hamas.”
The notion that Israel will ever accept a two-state solution, particularly after the horrific nightmare that took place on October 7, 2024, and its demolition of both Hamas and Hezbollah, is particularly far-fetched.
“The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar…creates the possibility for the biggest step toward a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians since Oslo [1993], as well as normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia—which means pretty much the entire Muslim world.”
Netanyahu has never believed in the creation of a two-state solution, and this has been true for the past 30 years ever since the Oslo Accords endorsed such a solution thirty years ago.
Bret Stephens in the New York Times, October 2024:
“But the opportunity in Sinwar’s death and Hamas’s military evisceration is that it begins to open a space for young Gazans …to openly and assertively reject Hamas’s brand of maximalist fanatical, Islamist policies.”
Stephens doesn’t name any specific Arab leader capable of creating the “conditions for another attempt by Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a different future in both Gaza and the West Bank. To do so, the Israelis would have to withdraw settlements from the West Bank and foreswear future fortifications in Gaza. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are talking about the exact opposite—adding to the settlement projects in the West Bank and returning settlements to Gaza. As for the so-called young Gazans in northern Gaza, they are simply waiting to die, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the main UN aid agency for Palestinians.
“Creating well-supplied humanitarian safe zones (perhaps administered by NATO security forces) for Gazan women, children, the elderly and men who have passed a security screening can further safeguard civilians and separate them from potential combatants.”
There is no reason to believe that Israel would ever accept “NATO security forces” in Gaza.
“Finally, an Arab mandate for Palestine…could provide a long-term answer for all sides: a credible Arab-led security force in Gaza; European-led economic reconstruction; a long-term path toward a politically moderate, economically prosperous Palestinian state; and closer ties between Israel ad friendly Arab states.”
Similarly, there is even less of a possibility that Israel would accept an “Arab-led security force in Gaza.” Friedman and Stephens surely know this.
Neither Friedman nor Stephens cites the criminality and inhumanity of Israel’s bombing campaign, which includes the murderous ethnic cleansing being conducted in northern Gaza, a region that Israel previously claimed was devoid of a Hamas presence. According to Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the smell of death is everywhere in northern Gaza, where Israel denies entry to the missions needed to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance.
These Israeli actions are the major obstacles to getting a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, and ensure that the measures cited by Friedman and Stephens cannot be employed. Israel’s continuing attacks on aid workers in Gaza, its continuing refusal to allow aid into Gaza, its continuing bombardment of schools and hospitals belie any intention to reach an agreement with Palestinians. Nevertheless, Secretary of State Antony Blinken maintains that “The fundamental questions is: Is Hamas serious?,” regarding the possibility of cease-fire talks.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu does everything possible to embarrass U.S. envoys trying to arrange a cease-fire in the region. Friedman and Stephens believe that the Biden team has an important role to play, but Netanyahu goes out of his way to embarrass the United States on its diplomatic missions. The latest Israeli effort was to intensify the bombing campaign in Lebanon as Secretary of State Blinken was completing his 11th mission to the region to arrange a cease-fire. And to make matters worse, the bombing campaign targeted the historic coastal city of Tyre, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. Thus far, Israel is not prepared to take any steps to advance the cause of peace, and the Palestinians and the Arab states are powerless to do anything about this.
Plus ca change, plus ce le meme chose.
Nicolle Wallace. Screengrab MSNBC.
What do the MAGAs have to do to show their racism and antisemitism? Walk through a town and lynch every Black person they encounter, which was how it was done in the old days? Shoot up some more synagogues? How about those who marched shouting “Jews will not replace us”? Trump calls them good people.
The waving of the Confederate flag and calling Black guards niggers was not enough? Donald Trump’s dining with Nazi sympathizers and praising Hitler was not enough. Praising his generals who were so great they lost the war? Is the Tea Party’s depicting President Obama as a witch doctor not enough? Presenting a poster with Obama lying in a casket. Presenting President Obama as a pimp and Michelle as a whore. Trump telling audiences that the Vice President slept her way to the top, or that she is garbage and scum and that she’s dumb, not enough? That she has a low I.Q. Latinos are poisoning the blood of America and trying to replace white people, leading to a lone nut shooting Latinos at an El Paso Walmart. Do the media attribute racism and antisemitism as motivators of Maga? I don’t see any evidence of it.
Take October 23. For Nicole Wallace appearing on MSNBC, Trump voters were motivated by Anti-Elitism, the favorite excuse for MAGAs used by the New York Times columnists. I quoted their columnist Timothy Egan in Alta Magazine.
Timothy Egan, who is based in Seattle, weighed in last November: “I understand the tribalism, the urge to push back against condescending libs and the suffocating ubiquity of political correctness, the sense that only Trump can save a certain way of life.” Egan even blamed progressives for Trumpism. “The left shares the blame, with its cancel culture, groupthink stridency, and identity politics—tactics now picked up by the right.” Identity politics? The title of one of Egan’s books is The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero. Egan identifies as Irish!
It took Vance’s paling around with Tucker Carlson, who cites a Nazi apologist as a great historian, for Bret Stephens to decide to vote for the Vice President. Before that, he implied that Black Lives Matter was a threat to Jews, even though the ADL has condemned Trump regularly for his Anti-Semitism. After he endorsed Kamala, he wrote a speech for her to deliver to close her campaign.
Nicole Wallace went on to list anti-media sentiment, economic despair, anger, and rage at anyone in charge of anything as the reasons for MAGAs supporting Trump. Later that day, even Jen Psaki said that MAGAs were people who’d been left behind when Trump had middle-class support, as well as those who inhabit the upper classes. The insurrection included people with nice pensions, economic perks, and Social Security. Among them were policemen and firefighters. David French said that Trump’s supporters are those who are lonely.
Katy Tur asked Symone Sanders-Townsend why the race was close. Why is it neck and neck? Sanders-Townsend, one of the handful of media pundits who does her homework, said because they like Trump’s policies. Tur gave my favorite excuses for MAGAs, one of whom attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer, and another who fired shots into one of the Democrats’ campaign headquarters. She said that MAGAs are upset that they can’t tell the jokes they told ten years ago, and their patriotism is mistaken for racism. Pelosi charges that Tur supports Trump.
A right-wing panelist appearing on the same program said that the race is close because the nation is divided and noted that the Vice President needed to put more meat on the bones. Like Stephens, he was among the media white men who coached her and decided that she failed the CNN interview held on October 23. Anchor Chris Jansing said they were upset about the economy and immigration.
Few noted that Trump didn’t show up for the debate. So by ignoring the elephants in the room, racism and antisemitism, because the MAGAs buy their advertiser’s products, the pundits and public intellectuals help Trump by “sane washing” a mosquito-brained petulant 78-year-old infant. If he’s elected, it’s because millions of Americans are spoiled, which has been the theme of my 40-year project, The Terribles. Twos, Threes, and Fours. Terrible Fives is near completion. The Terribles lost my niche as one of the establishment’s favored tokens. After a couple of hatchet jobs by surrogates, New York publishers dropped The Terribles.
The late John O’Brien of the Dalkey Archive Press promised to publish my books regardless of sales. So did Robin Philpot, the Montreal publisher of Baraka Books,
who published The Terrible Fours and will publish The Terrible Fives. I’m lucky because they were done when New York publishers dropped Richard Wright and Chester Himes’s books. I also publish books. But having read thousands of manuscripts, I realize that talent is common and I’m better off than eighty percent of American writers, but I think that with The Terribles I’ve tapped the American Zeitgeist. Check this out. Seventy-seven percent of Americans, the most privileged group in history, say the country is headed in the wrong direction. I’m sure that thousands of mothers in Sudan who hold their children as they die of malnutrition would like that wrong direction. The child in Gaza who lost her legs and an arm in from bombing would like that wrong direction. She said, “What good is my life now?”
