U.S. Ambassador to Israel Locked In Twitter War With Liberal Daily Haaretz

Image by Forward Montage

By Nathan Guttman February 9, 2018

U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman has a bone to pick with the country’s liberal daily Haaretz.

This week, the newspaper published an op-ed by columnist Gideon Levy in which he takes issue with Friedman who donated an ambulance to the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha. The column was published days after rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal, a father of four from Har Bracha, was murdered week by a Palestinian terrorist.

“With Friedman’s ambulance or without it, Har Bracha (literally, ‘Mountain of Blessing’) is a mountain of curses,” wrote Levy.

On Friday, Ambassador Friedman took to Twitter to respond.

What has become of .@Haaretz ? Four young children are sitting shiva for their murdered father and this publication calls their community a “mountain of curses.” Have they no decency?

— David M. Friedman (@USAmbIsrael) February 9, 2018

Haaretz publisher Amos Shocken responded: “Mr. Ambassador Gideon Levy is right. As long as the policy of Israel that your Government and yourself support is obstructing peace process, practical annexation of the territories, perpetuating apartheid, fighting terror but willing to pay its price, there will be more Shivas.”

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.