A few questions for Mr. Friedman about Israel - by Stephen M. Flatow

Well, I have some questions which concern the credibility of the speaker who has been chosen by the UJA Federation as an authority on global events. Perhaps Mr. Silow-Carroll can ask them.

Stephen M. Flatow..
Blog TOI..
02 June '20..

Every so often a leading Jewish organization holds an event that is a cut above the others. Later this week, the UJA Federation of New York will feature Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to be the featured speaker at its June 4th event. Friedman will be in “conversation” with the editor in chief of the New York Jewish Week, Andrew Silow-Carroll.

I have appeared in several of these “conversations” which can be quite informative and fun at the same time. As with the programs I have participated in, the program announcement informs attendees, “We’ll take your questions on the global ramifications of this age of uncertainty.”

Well, I have some questions which concern the credibility of the speaker who has been chosen by the UJA Federation as an authority on global events. Perhaps Mr. Silow-Carroll can ask them.

1. Mr. Friedman, in your column in the New York Times on April 4, 2012, you endorsed what you called “non-violent resistance by Palestinians” against Israel. The examples of such resistance that you gave were boycotts, hunger strikes, and throwing rocks. Last week, a young Israeli soldier, Amit Ben-Yigal, was murdered by an Arab who threw a heavy rock at his head. He was at least the 17th Israeli murdered by Arab rock-throwers since the 1980s. So, Mr. Friedman, do you still consider rock-throwing to be “non-violent”…?

2. In your column in the New York Times on February 4, 2020, you claimed that the real obstacle to peace is the impact of climate change in the Mideast. One of your main pieces of evidence that Mother Nature is the real issue is the fact that “in the summer of 2018, the Sea of Galilee [the Kinneret] was so low from droughts and water withdrawals for rising populations that it was threatening to become another saline lake, like the Dead Sea.”

Yet the Jerusalem Post reported on April 24, 2020, that the water level in the Kinneret is now at a 16 year-high. In fact, it is so high that it has almost reached what the Israelis call “the upper red line,” meaning it could lead to flooding of the nearby city of Tiberias if water is not drained. So, Mr. Friedman, will you now acknowledge that your fears were exaggerated?

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