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Netanyahu under fire
Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO

'Israel: Adrift at Sea, Alone'

'I’ve never been more worried about Israel’s future,' is how leading New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman opened his recent piece

"I’ve never been more worried about Israel’s future," is how leading New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman chose to open his recent piece, aptly titled, "Israel: Adrift at Sea, Alone".

 

Friedman went on to launch a scathing attack against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, calling it the "most diplomatically inept and strategically incompetent government in Israel’s history."

 

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The leading columnist also accused the Obama administration of caving in to the pro-Israel lobby in election season, forcing it to defend Israel at the UN despite the fact that it is against its best interests.

 

Netanyahu and Obama at the White House (Photo: Reuters)

 

Netanyahu, Friedman asserts, is not to blame for the changes in the Middle East and the deteriorating relations with Turkey and Egypt, but he is responsible for "failing to put forth a strategy to respond to all of these in a way that protects Israel’s long-term interests."

 

He then cynically acknowledges that Netanyahu does have a strategy: "Do nothing".

 

"I have great sympathy for Israel’s strategic dilemma and no illusions about its enemies," Friedman writes. "But Israel today is giving its friends — and President Obama’s one of them — nothing to defend it with."

 

According to Friedman, "Unfortunately, Israel today does not have a leader or a cabinet for such subtle diplomacy. One can only hope that the Israeli people will recognize this before this government plunges Israel into deeper global isolation and drags America along with it."

 

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.18.11, 11:12
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