Haaretz
The government of Israel wants to talk about Iran, but a lot of people did not get the memo.
For an important group of public intellectuals, the occupation of the
West Bank is becoming more rather than less important. And we are not
talking here about the usual cast of anti-Israel characters, but of
mainstream journalists, scholars, and opinion makers – those who write
in middle-of-the-road, general publications with a broad readership.
Something is happening—a turning point, I suspect. No matter how much
Israel’s leaders want to change the subject, it’s not working.
Exhibit A, of course, is New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, whose already-famous column
of August 1 ripped into Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel and, in the
process, castigated Israel for its building of settlements and its
less-than-aggressive advocacy for a two-state solution. Friedman has
made these arguments before, although rarely with such vehemence. In the
last week, efforts have been made yet again to dismiss Friedman as an
Israel hater, and yet again, they have failed; Friedman is a centrist, a
moderate, and, by the way, the most important foreign policy columnist
in the world.
