David Friedman was Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel. However that job title alone fails to adequately convey his proximity to the forty fifth president and his impression on US coverage. Their time collectively marked a repudiation of Barack Obama’s imaginative and prescient for the Center East. Sledgehammer, Friedman’s memoir, reminds the reader of all of this as insistently as its title suggests.
With Friedman’s help, the US helped forge the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and 4 Arab nations. The US additionally moved its embassy to Jerusalem and left the Iran nuclear deal. As for the Palestinians, put it this manner: they now not occupy rent-free house within the Republican conscience.
Not like different Trump appointees, Friedman was usually within the room when it occurred. To all intents and functions, he was not subordinate to Rex Tillerson, Trump’s first secretary of state. And as an enthusiastic backer of Israeli settlements in occupied territories, he had little curiosity in preserving the established order.
Greater than a half-century had elapsed since 1967 and the six-day struggle. Israel’s maintain on the West Financial institution had grown natural. The Oslo Accords gave technique to the second intifada and Gaza continued to smolder, regardless of Israel’s withdrawal greater than a decade earlier than. Godot had didn't arrive. Friedman’s e book with its unsubtle title has a subtitle too: “How Breaking with the Previous Introduced Peace to the Center East”.
Clearly, he overstates. The Palestinians are usually not, after all, content material. Warfare rages in Yemen. Drones and missiles hit the Emirates. Issues between Israel and Iran can worsen and possibly will.
Friedman was Trump’s chapter lawyer. When Trump introduced his presidential marketing campaign, Friedman was uncertain. Each males commemorated their fathers however, as Friedman acknowledges, they'd little else in widespread. The creator remains to be married to his first spouse. Faith is central to his life. He's an Orthodox Jew, the son of a rabbi. Whereas ambassador, his daughter made aliyah. That's, she moved to Israel and have become a citizen.
Friedman quotes a senior however unidentified state division aide as telling him: “Don’t be so Jewish. You characterize the USA of America … Only a free phrase of recommendation.” Suffice to say, Friedman was not amused. Though he held a presidential appointment, he was not a part of the membership.
Sledgehammer can be about ethnic grievance and expectations of Jewish solidarity – maybe misplaced. Earlier than becoming a member of the Trump administration, Friedman branded Obama antisemitic and trashed J Road, a liberal Jewish group, as “worse than kapos” – Jewish prisoners who labored as guards in Nazi focus camps. Such intemperate feedback got here with a political value. The Senate confirmed him by the narrowest of margins, 52-46.
On the web page, Friedman says these have been honest expressions. He used the time period “kapos”, he says, as a result of he felt “J Road had betrayed the Jewish individuals”. Elsewhere, he admonishes American Jews towards criticizing the Israeli authorities. He laments a rising schism amongst US Jews, even whereas describing his personal testy relationship with the Reform motion.
In 2020, American Jews went for Joe Biden by practically 40 factors however Trump was the clear favourite in Orthodox enclaves. In Israel, Trump is lionized. “Liked” is Friedman’s phrase.
He likes wielding his sledgehammer on the left. The appropriate, not a lot.
He castigates Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, progressive Democratic congresswomen, for hostility to Israel. As ambassador, he was advantageous with an try and cease them coming into Israel as a part of a congressional delegation.
However, he has nothing to say about Charlottesville in August 2017, its tiki torches and cries of “Jews is not going to exchange us” and Trump’s view that there have been “very advantageous individuals” on the neo-Nazi aspect on that day of violence and disgrace.
Friedman’s outrage seems selective.
He's additionally silent on Trump delivering a tart “fuck him” to Benjamin Netanyahu – Israel’s former prime minister and a Friedman buddy – in an interview memorialized in Barak Ravid’s e book, Trump’s Peace.
As an alternative, Friedman swings repeatedly at Mahmoud Abbas, difficult the Palestinian chief’s want to achieve an settlement with Israel.
As soon as once more, Trump may properly disagree. Trump advised Ravid he believed Netanyahu “didn't need to make peace. By no means did”. As for Abbas, “We spent loads of time collectively, speaking about many issues. And it was nearly like a father. I imply, he was so good, couldn’t have been nicer.”
Friedman was significantly near Netanyahu, a lot in order that strains may blur. In response to Ravid, Friedman sat in on Israeli authorities conferences till he was tossed out by cupboard members. Friedman’s memoir does nothing to dispel that report.
He describes his efforts to assist Netanyahu cobble collectively a authorities. He zings Avigdor Lieberman, former Netanyahu confidant and present Israeli finance minister, for refusing to come back to the struggling prime minister’s rescue. The actual fact Netanyahu was then beneath a authorized cloud and now stands on trial for corruption escapes actual point out.
Elsewhere, Friedman criticizes Benny Gantz, Israel’s protection minister and Netanyahu’s jilted coalition accomplice. Though Gantz had been chief of workers of Israel’s navy, says Friedman, he was not the politician Netanyahu was. Then once more, Friedman additionally expresses his gratitude for his relationship with Gantz, who he describes as “6ft 4in and ruggedly good-looking, an uncommon search for an Israeli politician”. Trump too has praised Gantz, albeit at Netanyahu’s expense.
What Friedman does subsequent will likely be attention-grabbing. Like Trump, he has left New York for Florida. His e book jacket posts a blurb from Nikki Haley, previously governor of South Carolina and a possible candidate for the Republican nomination if Trump doesn't search it. Friedman has additionally described Ron DeSantis, of Florida, as Israel’s best buddy amongst all 50 present governors.
Friedman is much from completed. Sledgehammer is not only a memoir. It's a well-written audition for 2024 and past.
Sledgehammer: How Breaking With the Previous Introduced Peace to the Center East, is printed within the US by Broadside Books
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