Nordlinger goes after Friedman's last column.
know I swore off Tom Friedman criticism, as well as Maureen Dowd criticism, but I'm going to backslide, just a little.
In his Sunday column, he wrote the following flabbergasting passage. Or rather, it would be flabbergasting, if it weren't typical of Friedman, part of whose shtick is that "extremists" on "both sides" of the Arab-Israeli conflict are to blame for perpetual heartbreak.
". . . the Israeli and Palestinian mainstreams spent the last 36 years, since Israel's victory in 1967, avoiding any clear decision over how to govern [the territories]. So those extremists who had a clear idea, like the settlers and Hamas, hijacked the situation and drove the agenda."
Meditate on that: "like the settlers and Hamas." You may not like the settlers. You may think they're "an obstacle to peace" (which they're not). But "the settlers and Hamas"? Co-extremists? Hamas dedicates its existence to killing dozens and scores and hundreds of innocent people, in pizzerias, at bus stops, wherever they may be. The settlers dedicate their existence to not being killed.
This reminded me of Anthony Lewis's statement, on retiring from the New York Times, not long after September 11: "Certainty is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and John Ashcroft."
Hamas, the settlers; bin Laden, Ashcroft, thinking like that can get you employment at the New York Times, and Pulitzer prizes.
In his column, Friedman continued,
"Israel has been trying to get rid of Yasir Arafat for years, but it was a legitimate process, managed by the Palestinian legislature, that last month produced the first legitimate alternative: the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas."
Sorry, Charlie: What caused that was pressure from George W. Bush and, secondarily, from Ariel Sharon. Firm, unappeasable anti-Arafat pressure forced that reform. The Palestinians did not wake up one morning and feel like doing it, rather like Sen. Byrd seeking more pork for West Virginia.
I could go on, but . . . my much-abused pledge.
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