Elliot Chodoff administers a royal fisking to Friedman's latest scrawl:
Jewish Bolshevik Bankers
by Elliot Chodoff
Thomas Friedman has finally returned to the op-ed pages of the New York Times, having taken a few months off to write a book, and is wasting no time in getting back into the business of blaming the Jews and Israel for everything that is wrong in the Arab world.
His new epiphany (“Jews, Israel and America,” NY Times, October 24, 2004) is so convoluted, however, that it requires a number of readings to follow the twisted plot. First we are informed that the Iraqis have a new epithet for the American forces there: Jews. Second, the slur is blamed on the inept American communications to the population of that country (with a minor assist credited to an ongoing trend in the Arab media to use “Jew” as a synonym for “illegitimate.”). Next, we are informed that it is the result of “the Bush team’s failed approach to the Arab-Israeli problem,” although if you read carefully - it took us three re-reads to catch it - Friedman reminds us that the conflict is not Israel’s fault.
At this point, it starts to get interesting. Sharon is a good guy for about half a paragraph, since this provides an opportunity to refer to his right wing opposition as “the Jewish Hezbollah.” But fear not, we are quickly reminded that Sharon is in conflict not only with his right wing opponents, but also with common sense, and thus should be opposed by the US. His plan to pull out of Gaza, which was a good idea 10 lines ago, quickly metamorphoses into a dastardly scheme to take over the West Bank. So, even if he is promoting good policy, America should oppose him because it’s for the wrong reason. And, we are led to understand, it’s really the Jews’ fault after all that America is the enemy of the Arabs and Muslims.
It is nothing new for the Arab world to blame the Jews for its misfortune. It is widely accepted in the Middle East that the Mossad was responsible for the 9/11 attacks (although bin Laden is venerated as a hero for them). That the Jews control America is holy writ in much of that part of the world as well. But Friedman’s rambling accusations are reminiscent of the catchall terminology used by the best Nazi speechwriters. Having blamed Israel for dictating American policy (see “A Jewish Conspiracy,” Archives, February 5, 2004) he now goes on to blame it for all that has gone wrong in the Middle East.
On January 30, 1939, Hitler, in a public speech, said the following: “Today I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!” The equation of Jewish bankers with Jewish Bolsheviks was a propaganda stroke that unified antisemites from across the political and economic spectrum, as Jews were the enemies of all.
Friedman’s version upholds that tradition: Jews are Hezbollah, against common sense, and responsible for the continuation of a conflict that is not their fault (even according to Friedman!).
We would be better off if Friedman would take leave to write another book. Perhaps something like “Yasir in Wonderland.”
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