Diplomat needed
The U.S.-Israel relationship is too important to trust to an amateur.
During the Super Bowl, a sprawling Marriott Marquis ballroom was host to a private performance by Elton John for Patriots owner Bob Kraft.
The crowd was much larger the next weekend, when it was filled with around 1,600 students, business leaders, politicians and Israel supporters of all stripes for the annual AIPAC dinner.
There’s a cautious hope among this pro-Israel crowd that a new president will ease the tension that existed under the Obama White House. However, there’s reason to fear that change won’t be for the better.
Trump has already started on the wrong foot by nominating David Friedman as his ambassador to Israel.
Friedman, who faces the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, lacks the diplomatic experience and policy chops necessary to fill this important role. His credentials start and stop with his time spent as Donald Trump’s personal bankruptcy attorney. He simply does not have the credentials necessary for this key position in our nation’s foreign service.
The special relationship between the U.S. and Israel is too important to give away as some campaignseason reward. Israel deserves a U.S. ambassador who understands the historic geopolitics of the region and knows how to do the job on day one. That’s why Democrats and Republicans alike have routinely filled this seat with career diplomats. Trump should follow their example.
Friedman has already been condemned in Israeli newspapers for holding an overly simplistic view on the Middle East. Much of the criticism hinges on his opposition to a two-state solution in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinians. Friedman’s idea of a single state encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories risks undermining Israel’s democracy, its security and its Jewish character.
Trump himself even backed away from a two-state solution at a press conference Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
For the past 50 years, Republican and Democratic administrations have all opposed settlements as contrary to the prospects for peace. Retreating from decades of foreign policy consistency on a whim will only foment chaos and weaken our nation’s position on the international stage.
Friedman has also been scrutinized by Israeli pundits for his personal financial support of a controversial West Bank settlement outside Ramallah. Netanyahu and the U.S. State Department both fear what would replace the status quo in the West Bank. Yet Trump has picked a man who makes no secret about his desire to smash the fragile balance in the Palestinian territories.
The loudest voices against Friedman echo from America’s own Jewish community. More than 600 American rabbis and dozens of Holocaust survivors have written letters to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee objecting to Friedman’s nomination. Friedman has done little to win over Jewish support stateside. Just last year he wrote a column comparing J Street, a pro-Israel advocacy group that focuses on a two-state solution, to kapos — Jews who worked in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
It is hard to imagine a diplomat with a less diplomatic personality.
Trump is already learning that Israel is more complex than he anticipated. Promises of moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem on day one have been quietly rolled back.
The United States should send an ambassador who fully grasps this challenge. Otherwise, hopes for a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestinians will flicker away, as the Elton John song goes, like a candle in the wind.
Israel deserves a U.S. ambassador who understands the historic geopolitics of the region and knows how to do the job on day one.