Doubting Thomas

Friedman's odd moral calculus

Honest Reporting slams Friedman's latest travesty, "Tyranny of the Minorities" in which he equates the Jewish residents of Gaza with Al Sadr's militia. In HR's regular communique it notes:

Al-Sadr leads an armed movement attempting to drive Americans from Iraq by killing as many US soldiers as possible. Its members are attempting to impose their will by using shoulder-launched rockets and other weaponry, hiding themselves and their armaments in mosques, and firing at American troops from their religious havens.

How are the residents of Gaza, whom Friedman equates with the Mahdi Army, 'fighting' their battle? They utilized the democratic process to make their voices heard, mobilizing supporters to encourage members of the Likud party to vote against Sharon's plan.

HR hits just as hard in its blog, Media Backspin:

Friedman has long drawn outrageous comparisons between Israeli settlers and Palestinian terrorists, but he breaks new ground by bringing American victims into his twisted equation.

Al-Sadr leads an armed movement attempting to drive Americans from Iraq by killing as many US soldiers as possible; the settler community has never been characterized by violence (let alone 'sacrificing themselves'), large sections of that community are not following a messianic vision, and even the messianists have demonstrated a willingness to succomb to the Israeli majority should it come to that.

In addition I'd point out that not all supporters of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza view it with the same relish as Friedman. Amnon Dankner is cognizant that even if the withdrawal is beneficial (hardly a foregone conclusion) it is fraught with risks and is worth reading as an antidote to the hyperbole of Friedman:

Even supporters of the disengagement plan, like myself, should not have the hubris to accept it with complete confidence, belittling and ignoring our opponents. The fact that we believe that we are right does not mean that we should totally disregard the fact that they may have valid points. We need look no further than Oslo to see the results of false pride, when one side believes it and it alone has a monopoly on wisdom and prescience.

In the gay, optimistic days of the Oslo Accords, the vast majority of the media lauded Oslo and its initiators, giving them unrestrained support, and assisting them in convincing the Israeli public that any mines along the path were either duds or small ones easily defused. In the end those duds exploded in our faces, taking the life out of the process and leaving us to mourn hundreds of Israeli victims of terror.

This is one more case of Thomas Friedman demonizing those who engaged in a democratic process by comparing them with armed thugs. One would think that someone who supported Oslo despite its failures and the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon despite its failures would have learned a little humility by now.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Doubting Thomas.

Thomas Friedman Speaks; Hezbollah Doesn't Listen

I noted a few months ago Friedman's line:

After Israel withdrew from Lebanon, the Hezbollah militia, on the other side, went on hating Israel and harassing the border — but it never tried to launch an invasion. Why? Hezbollah knew it would have no legitimacy — in the world or in Lebanon — for breaching that U.N.-approved border.

Alas, Hezbollah still doesn't seem to have taken Friedman to heart:

Relative quiet returned to the northern border after Hizbullah attacks on IDF targets in the Mount Dov region on Friday morning in which St.-Sgt. Denis Laminov was killed and six other soldiers were wounded – two of them seriously.
Laminov, 21, of Bat Yam, is to be laid to rest at 2 p.m. Sunday at the military cemetery in Holon. The young soldier, a member of the Golani Brigade's elite Egoz counterguerrilla reconnaissance unit, is survived by his parents and brother.

Crossposted on Israpundit and Doubting Thomas.