Tom Friedman's antipathy towards Israel is well—known, and his latest conspiracy theory regarding the invisible powers that be that control the White House is just one more example revealing his bias. Let's examine how his double standard towards Israel and its neighbors has manifested itself and proves his prejudice.

The durability of his dislike is shown by re—reading his 1989 book From Beirut to Jerusalem. During Friedman's posting to the region, Hafez Assad leveled the city of Hama, murdering 20,000 people because he was angry at the foothold the Muslim Brotherhood had gained there. Friedman nonchalantly dismissed this well—planned massacre and characterized Assad and Saddam Hussein as "the kind of men of ambition to which Salibi referred: modernizing bureaucrats trying to solidify and develop their relatively new nation—states." Friedman continues, "the Hama massacre has to be seen as the natural reaction of a modernizing politician in a relatively new nation—state trying to stave off retrogressive — in this case, Islamic fundamentalist — elements aiming to undermine everything he has achieved in the way of building Syria into a modern twentieth—century secular republic" (pgs 100—101, hardcover edition).

 On the other hand, Christian militia members perpetrated the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps; yet Friedman blames Israel (and specifically Ariel Sharon) for complicity in the event. He writes that after the incident he was 'boiling with anger" (p.165) — an emotion he did not display after Hama. He wrote that he "wanted to nail Begin and Sharon — to prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that their army had been involved in a massacre in Beirut in the hope that this would help get rid of them" (p.165).

There you have his moral calculus. Assad murders 20,000 people in a well—planned attack and gets a pass. Sharon may have negligently allowed Christians to kill a little over 1000 Palestinians and he wants to "nail" him and get rid of him. Friedman's long campaign to vilify Sharon and sacrifice Israel continues.

Posted by Ed   02 11 04