Mr. Friedman is a respected journalist from the New York Times, expert on the Middle East, recipient of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize and having the ear of President Biden. In short, an important personality in the media and US politics. In a recent editorial of an interview in the left-wing newspaper Haaretz, Mr. Friedman declared that the war in Gaza corresponds to the 2nd world war while the war in Ukraine would rather be the 1st world war. Because the war in Gaza affects almost everyone, in any case everyone talks about it and feels involved. Mr. Friedman virulently accuses Netanyahu and his far-right clique of incompetence: “I wouldn’t even want those ministers’ serving drinks at my kids’ bar mitzvah party.” They are worthless from every point of view and therefore must be replaced as quickly as possible. So far, we can only subscribe to this opinion, the facts having shown how the Prime Minister did everything possible, including in assessing the risks of attacks and unpreparedness for the massacre of October 7 despite the clues collected by his own intelligence services and those of the US.
However, the rest of this interview suffers from inconsistency. The bombings, the massacres of GAZA, the destruction of a people by bombs everywhere, the famine, the blockade, the discharge given to soldiers to act as they wish – including when the military hierarchy is against – all this would be the consequence of this incompetence. I think “it’s horrible to want to accuse Israel of genocide because even though so many civilians were killed it was not deliberate.” First, accusing these leaders of incompetence is debatable, one does not remain leader of Israel for 20 years – a country more difficult to govern than France – by being incompetent. Mr Netanyahu pursues a goal with talent and competence, prohibiting any possibility of peace between Israel and Palestine and any possibility of the creation of a Palestinian state, including by refusing pressure from Biden and humiliating him like never a Prime Minister had allowed himself to do. We can’t deny him this “skill”! To then say that the massacres were not deliberate justifies this adage according to which there is no one more blind than he who does not want to see. We do not “non-deliberately” massacre a people (more than 10,000 children killed, and hundreds left crippled for life) with their archives, hospitals, cemeteries, mosques, arable land, without “doing it on purpose”. Moreover, Netanyahu and his clique – the Ben-Gvir fascists etc. – say it openly, we must kill as many Palestinians as possible and send back the rest so that Gaza becomes an Israeli pearl with 4-star hotels and its remarkable beaches that can accommodate hordes of tourists. Conclusion, yes Netanyahu and his clique are the most harmful leaders this country has had – as President Biden said in a moment of intense lucidity – but they are not incompetent and fully deserve to be sent back to the Hague with the leaders of Hamas (and some other Putin and Assad).
Photo : Mohammed Ibrahim – Unsplash
