Thomas Friedman, "Bibi Will Make History": And Tom Will Continue to Write Crapola

“First, no matter what’ve you’ve heard, if you like your doctor -- or health care plan -- you can keep it.”

- President Obama

Before turning to the latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Bibi Will Make History" penned by would-be Middle East expert Thomas Friedman, allow me to let you in on several little-known facts: Politicians lie. Moreover, politicians lie to serve their own interests. Obama, Hillary and Netanyahu have all been known to bend the truth.

Now, also consider how one of Israel's most "hawkish" prime ministers, Menachem Begin, was able to make peace with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. And give some thought to how Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and not someone from Israel's center-left, evacuated Gaza. Like it or not, only Israeli politicians from the right, given their backing, have proven strong enough to make such far-reaching concessions.

Now, let's have a look at Friedman's cockamamie opinion piece . . .

Railing at Netanyahu for declaring that if reelected, there would be no Palestinian state, Friedman writes:

"Now, if there are not going to be two states for two peoples in the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean, then there is going to be only one state — and that one state will either be a Jewish democracy that systematically denies the voting rights of about one-third of its people or it will be a democracy and systematically erodes the Jewish character of Israel."

Needless to say, Friedman makes no mention of the fact that it is Mahmoud Abbas, now in the eleventh year of his four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority, who has stood in the way of West Bank elections for fear of his Hamas rivals.

Friedman also makes no mention of the fact that Abbas is in no hurry to attain Palestinian statehood. Abbas declared to Jackson Diehl in 2009:

"'I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements,' he said. 'Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life.'"

This statement was made after Abbas refused Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's 2008 peace offer, providing the Palestinians with an independent state along the 1967 lines together with agreed upon land swaps and Palestinian control of east Jerusalem. One year later, after Netanyahu declared a 10-month settlement freeze "to restart peace talks" at the request of Obama, Abbas delayed entering negotiations until the last moment and then walked away from the discussions.

Finally, Friedman fails to consider that there is a middle ground between the absence of statehood and Israeli annexation of the West Bank - something that is simply not going to happen.

I favor a two-state solution and wish the Palestinians peace and prosperity, but before they are given statehood, there should be ironclad guarantees that rockets and missiles will not be fired at Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa from the West Bank. Can the Palestinians offer such guarantees as chaos runs rampant throughout the Muslim Middle East? Not likely.

But more to the point, if such ironclad guarantees were to be offered, I would not be surprised if Netanyahu, who is more intimately acquainted with the demographics of the West Bank than Tom Terrific, would again change his position regarding a two-state solution. Such is the nature of politicians.

[It happened sooner than expected: In an interview with NBC, Netanyahu today declared: "I don’t want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution." What a surprise ! . . . not.]