Trump Chooses Hard-Liner as Ambassador to Israel, The New York Times
“President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer aligned with the Israeli far right, as his nominee for ambassador to Israel, elevating a campaign adviser who has questioned the need for a two-state solution and has likened left-leaning Jews in America to the Jews who aided the Nazis in the Holocaust….beyond Republicans, there were deep concerns over the choice of Mr. Friedman. J Street, a dovish lobbying organization that has been critical of some Israeli policies, said in a statement that it was ‘vehemently opposed to the nomination.’ ‘As someone who has been a leading American friend of the settlement movement, who lacks any diplomatic or policy credentials,’ it said, ‘Friedman should be beyond the pale.’ Mr. Friedman has made clear his disdain for those American Jews — especially those connected to J Street — who support a two-state solution for the Israelis and the Palestinians. Writing in June on the website of Arutz Sheva, an Israeli media organization, Mr. Friedman compared J Street supporters to “kapos,” the Jews who cooperated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. ‘The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty,’ he wrote. ‘But J Street? They are just smug advocates of Israel’s destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas — it’s hard to imagine anyone worse.’ At a private session this month at the Saban Forum, an annual gathering of Israeli and American foreign policy figures, Mr. Friedman declined to disavow the comments and even intensified the sentiment. Interviewed by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic, Mr. Friedman was asked if he would meet with various groups, including J Street. Mr. Friedman said he would probably meet with individuals but not with the group, according to several people who attended. Mr. Goldberg then raised the kapos comparison and asked if he stood by it. Mr. Friedman did not back away. ‘They’re not Jewish, and they’re not pro-Israel,’ he said, according to the people in the room.’”
Trump picks a supporter of West Bank settlements for ambassador to Israel, Washington Post
“J Street, the Washington-based organization that supports a two-state solution, said it was ‘vehemently opposed’ to the nomination. ‘As someone who has been a leading American friend of the settlement movement, who lacks any diplomatic or policy credentials . . . Friedman should be beyond the pale for Senators considering who should represent the United States in Israel,’ J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement. Calling the proposed nomination ‘reckless,’ Ben-Ami said it puts ‘America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk. Senators should know that the majority of Jewish Americans oppose the views and the values this nominee represents.’”
Donald Trump Taps One of His Lawyers as Ambassador to Israel, Wall Street Journal
“Liberal-leaning U.S. Jewish groups quickly lined up against the nomination. The lobbying group J Street said it ‘vehemently opposed’ Mr. Friedman’s nomination and warned that he lacked any diplomatic or policy credentials and is “beyond the pale” of American views in the Middle East. ‘This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk,’ said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group’s president.”
Trump picks hard-line attorney as Israel envoy, angering Jewish left, Politico
Trump’s choice of Friedman immediately drew criticism from liberal Jewish activists. “As someone who has been a leading American friend of the settlement movement, who lacks any diplomatic or policy credentials and who has attacked liberal Jews who support two states as ‘worse than kapos’, Friedman should be beyond the pale for senators considering who should represent the United States in Israel,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the left-leaning Jewish advocacy group J Street said in a statement.
David Friedman, Trump’s Radical-right Ambassador, Makes Netanyahu Look Like a J Street Lefty, Haaretz
“Friedman has expressed opinions that are considered radical even in today’s more right-wing Israel. He opposes a two-state solution, supports settlements and advocates annexation, has denigrated President Obama as an anti-Semite, questioned the citizenship of Israeli Arabs, compared J Street to Holocaust-era kapos and so on. It’s good he’ll be coming with diplomatic immunity: For some of his articles and statements, Friedman could get arrested by the Israeli police on suspicion of incitement. Friedman’s appointment would seem to confirm Bennett’s initial jubilation following Trump’s election: This is not an ambassador that a rational U.S. administration would send if it had any plans whatsoever to advance the peace process. This is an ambassador who will please Evangelicals, delight Jewish settlers and bring pleasure to Land of Israel zealots far and wide. In many ways, Friedman will seem like a turbo-charged Ron Dermer, courting the extreme right in his host country while shunning all the rest.”
Trump Taps Israel Envoy, Eyes Moving Embassy to Jerusalem, AP
“[T]he announcement sparked anger from liberal Jewish groups. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, called nominating Friedman ‘reckless,’ citing his support for settlements and his questioning of a two-state solution with the Palestinians.”
Trump’s pick for envoy to Israel expects embassy in Jerusalem, Reuters
J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group based in Washington, said it was “vehemently opposed” to Friedman’s nomination. “This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk,” the statement said.
Trump picks campaign adviser Friedman as US ambassador to Israel, CNN
“J Street, a progressive Israel group, said it ‘vehemently’ opposed Friedman, citing his position on a two-state solution. ‘As someone who has been a leading American friend of the settlement movement, who lacks any diplomatic or policy credentials and who has attacked liberal Jews who support two states as ‘worse than kapos,’ Friedman should be beyond the pale for senators considering who should represent the United States in Israel,’ the group said. ‘This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk.’”
Donald Trump’s Israel ambassador is hardline pro-settler lawyer, The Guardian
“In a column for the Israel National News website, he compared the liberal Jewish US lobby group J Street to concentration camp prisoner-guards and described its supporters as ‘smug advocates of Israel’s destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas – it’s hard to imagine anyone worse’. He went further at the Saban forum earlier this month, saying J Street’s supporters were ‘not Jewish, and they’re not pro-Israel’. The J Street president, Jeremy Ben Ami, said in a statement on Thursday: ‘J Street is vehemently opposed to the nomination of David Friedman. This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk.’”
Trump Chooses Settlements Supporter as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Bloomberg
“‘This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk,’ said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the Washington-based organization J Street, which advocates a two-state solution. ‘Senators should know that the majority of Jewish Americans oppose the views and the values this nominee represents.’”
From Dismay to Jubilation, Trump’s Pick of David Friedman as Israel Envoy Splits Jewish Response, Haaretz
In an interview with Haaretz, J Street CEO Jeremy Ben-Ami said that his organization will lobby senators from both political parties to vote against approving Friedman’s appointment. ‘We will be lobbying all Democrats and Republicans that this is a nomination that simply should not go through,’ Ben-Ami told Haaretz. ‘The orthodoxy of the Republican party in the mainstream of American foreign policy has been recognition that there has to be a Palestinian state. George W. Bush was the first president to call for the creation of a Palestinian state,’ said Ben-Ami. ‘Will our Republican senators stand up and be counted, and say ‘this is counter to American interests, and we’re going to take a stand’?’”
Liberal Jewish orgs rage against Trump’s Israel ambassador pick, Times of Israel
Within an hour of President-elect Donald Trump announcing Thursday that David Friedman, his adviser and long-time friend, was his choice to be the next US ambassador to Israel, liberal Jewish groups let loose with scathing condemnations of the appointment. “J Street is vehemently opposed to the nomination of David Friedman,’ the organization’s president, Jeremy Ben Ami, said in a statement. ‘This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk.’….Speaking before the Brookings Institution’s annual Saban Forum earlier this month, Friedman refused to walk back his comparison, reportedly declaring of those aligned with J Street: ‘They’re not Jewish, and they’re not pro-Israel,’ according to The New York Times. The dovish advocacy group revisited that comment Thursday when it declared its disgust at the prospect of Friedman assuming one of the most delicate positions in US foreign policy. ‘As someone who has been a leading American friend of the settlement movement, who lacks any diplomatic or policy credentials and who has attacked liberal Jews who support two states as ‘worse than kapos,’ Friedman should be beyond the pale for senators considering who should represent the United States in Israel,’ Ben-Ami said.”
Trump taps adviser David Friedman for ambassador to Israel, Yahoo News
“The leftist pro-Israel, US-based organization J Street sharply criticized Trump’s nomination of Friedman, calling the choice ‘reckless.’ ‘This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk,’ the group’s president Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement. ‘Friedman should be beyond the pale for Senators considering who should represent the United States in Israel.’”
Trump Taps David Friedman as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Haaretz
“Responding to Trump’s pick of Friedman on Thursday, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the dovish Jewish lobby J Street, tweeted that tapping Friedman as ambassador was ‘anathema to values that underlie US-Israel relationship.’ ‘We’ll fight this with all we’ve got,’ he said. Friedman has repeatedly criticized J Street, writing in an op-ed for Israel National News that he considers the group ‘far worse than kapos.’ In an official statement, J Street said it is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Friedman’s nomination, and added that he should be “beyond the pale” for senators considering who should represent the U.S. in Israel.”
Trump taps adviser David Friedman for ambassador to Israel, The Hill
“J Street, a liberal Israel advocacy group, said Thursday it is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Friedman’s nomination. ‘This nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility in the world at risk,’ a spokesman said in a statement. ‘Senators should know that the majority of Jewish Americans oppose the views and values this nominee represents. ‘J Street calls on all friends of Israel who believe its future, democracy and security depend on two states to join us in opposing the nomination.’”
Ambassador Dermer’s Defense of Bigots and Attack on SPLC Are Outrageous, J Street Blog
“J Street is outraged by Israeli Ambassador to the US’ Ron Dermer’s full-throated defense of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), an Islamophobic hate group, and by his attack on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a venerable and important anti-bigotry watchdog that has stood against discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism for decades….Right now, when American Jews are deeply worried about the rise of white nationalism and hate crimes in this country in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, it is remarkable that Dermer would stand with the champions of hate while criticizing a group that plays a vital role in defending Muslims, Jews, African-Americans and other vulnerable minorities. Now more than ever, American Jews need and support groups like the SPLC who stand up to bigots. What we do not need are Israeli leaders and representatives who defend the likes of Frank Gaffney and Steve Bannon, as Ambassador Dermer has, thereby normalizing lies and discrimination, and alienating the majority of American Jews who find their beliefs reprehensible.”
Will Trump move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem?, Politico
Andrew Hana and Yousef Saba report, “‘Those who’ve worked on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations say that moving the embassy would effectively kill the peace process. “It would essentially validate the view that all of Jerusalem now belongs to Israel,’ said Aaron David Miller, a former peace negotiator and scholar at the Wilson Center.”
Netanyahu and Dermer Prefer Muslim-baiting Trump to Jew-loving Obama, Haaretz
Chemi Shalev writes, “Even for an ambassador who has mainly served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal emissary to the American right and who has steadfastly boycotted groups such as J Street, Dermer was crossing a new red line. Despite the low expectations that the liberal establishment has of him, at a time when reality is stranger than fiction all around, Dermer managed to shock many American Jews. Dermer knows that opposition to his participation in the ceremony didn’t only come from the SPLC but from the Reform Movement, the Anti-Defamation League and smaller Jewish groups as well….In a month, Obama will vacate the White House and make way for a totally different regime. His love of Jews will be replaced by hostility towards Muslims, which Netanyahu and Dermer apparently prefer….Netanyahu, Dermer and others of their ilk will rejoice at the changing of the guards, but many others, including most American Jews, as well as Israeli moderates and leftists, will feel dejected and abandoned. Tell me which group you belong to, Trump celebrants or Obama mourners, and I’ll tell you who you are.”
Hundreds Flock to Amona to Barricade Themselves Ahead of Forcible Evacuation, Haaretz
“Ever since Amona residents decided to reject a compromise proposed by the government, hundreds of people have been streaming to the West Bank outpost to resist its planned evacuation. Some arrived even before residents voted to reject the compromise, and when they heard the outcome of the vote, they broke out dancing. Amona settlers said they didn’t so much reject the compromise as vote to negotiate in hopes of a better offer. They want a firm commitment that for every house razed or removed from Amona, another house will be built elsewhere on the same hill.”
Netanyahu Pushes for Demolition of Israeli Arab Homes to Appease Rightists Over Amona, Haaretz
In an attempt to appease the right for the expected evacuation of the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to push in the next few days for the demolition of homes belonging to Israeli Arabs that were built illegally, as well as the homes of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. A senior Israeli source said that during talks led by Netanyahu in the last two weeks with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich, the prime minister instructed that demolition orders be enforced over the next few days in Arab towns in southern and northern Israel as well as East Jerusalem.
Israeli forces deliver demolition orders to Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Ma’an
Israeli officials from the Jerusalem municipality, escorted by Israeli soldiers, raided the neighborhood of Issawiya on Thursday in occupied East Jerusalem and hanged demolition notices on several building.
Trump Adviser to Arab Diplomats: Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem Is ‘Complex’ Move, Haaretz
Walid Phares, a Middle East policy adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, told Middle East diplomats in Washington during a briefing on Wednesday that moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was a “complex” move, which would be a “process” that would take a long time if undertaken, CNN reported.
Jerusalem mayor says Trump is serious about moving US embassy, Times of Israel
Jerusalem’s mayor said Tuesday that he is confident Donald Trump will move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a break in US policy that is sure to anger Palestinians, who claim the eastern sector of the city for their future capital.
With Settlers Set to Be Evacuated, Palestinian Landowners Wait to Return, Haaretz
“Maryam Hamad was about 60 the last time she was able to go to her land, on part of which the Amona outpost now stands. Hamad, now past 80, lives in an old house in the Palestinian town of Silwad not far from the outpost….The false claims prevalent on the right that there are no specific Palestinians claiming ownership rights to the land where Amona sits are especially infuriating in light of her story. Hamad shows wheat that she says was harvested on that land in the 1990s, and she still has containers full of wheat and barley. ‘It’s my last memory of this land, from the last time I was there,” she says. “That was in 1998.’”
The wall that separates Israeli, US Jews, Al-Monitor
“At a Nov. 8 session of the Knesset’s Interior Affairs Committee devoted to the dispute over praying at the Western Wall, Knesset member Mickey Levy from the centrist, anti-clerical Yesh Atid reported that during a round of recent meetings in the United States, he sensed ‘tremendous anger’ against Israel and a feeling among Jewish communities that Israel had ‘betrayed them.’ He should tell Netanyahu. It looks like the prime minister doesn’t understand that the America he knows how to move so well is no longer that there.”
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