Jerold S. Auerbach
JNS, Mar. 24, 2022
“Friedman wondered “what kind of society is Israel to become?” Would it be “a Jewish South Africa, permanently ruling Palestinians in West Bank homelands” or will it be “a Jewish Prussia, trying to bully all its neighbours.” As it turned out, neither. It was then, and has remained, the only democratic state in the Middle East.”
Journalists associated with The New York Times reporting from Israel have often revealed more about themselves than about the Jewish state. A prime example is Thomas L. Friedman.
It long ago became evident that when Friedman writes a column about Israel, readers should expect a barrage of criticism. His discomfort with the Jewish state traces back to his undergraduate years at Brandeis University, when he joined a left-wing “Middle East Peace Group” that blamed Israel for Middle East instability and favored Palestinian statehood.
Beginning in 1984, when he became Jerusalem bureau chief for the Times, Friedman seldom missed an opportunity to criticize Israel. The religious Zionism of Jewish settlers (living in the biblical homeland of the Jewish people) and its harsh military response to Palestinian terrorist attacks were his primary targets.
Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of 12 books, including “Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel (1896-2016).”
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