If this is the extent of Tom Friedman’s regret for last week’s column, I’d respect him more if he’d keep stubbornly quiet or just hop into bed with the Walt and Mearsheimer camp once and for all.
Friedman told the NY Jewish Week:
“In retrospect I probably should have used a more precise term like ‘engineered’ by the Israel lobby — a term that does not suggest grand conspiracy theories that I don’t subscribe to,” Friedman said. “It would have helped people focus on my argument, which I stand by 100 percent.”
That argument, he said, was about the need to distinguish between American and Israeli interests at times, and to note that many American Jews “are deeply worried about where Israel is going today.”
Distinguishing between American and Israeli interests is a valid discussion. But saying the Israel lobby “engineered” (or as Merriam-Webster defines it: to contrive or plan out with more or less subtle skill and craft) all that Congressional applause for Bibi’s speech doesn’t change anything.
Tom, why be polite? Just say what you really think: Washington’s bipartisan thumbs up for the Israeli Prime Minister reflects nothing logical except a machinated, manipulated, maneuver masterminded by the Israel lobby.
