Friedman: I Should Have Been ‘More Precise’
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said that he should have used a more “precise term” when he wrote that congressional ovations for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.”
“In retrospect I probably should have used a more precise term like ‘engineered’ by the Israel lobby – a term that does not suggest grand conspiracy theories that I don’t subscribe to,” Friedman told The New York Jewish Week on Tuesday.
In a column last week about what he said were concerns that American Jews had with Israel’s direction, Friedman sparked outrage when he wrote that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not overly invest in applause he garnered when he addressed Congress in May.
“That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby,” Friedman wrote.
Among the rebukes was one from Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington.
“The term ‘Israel lobby’ implies the existence of a Zionist cabal wielding inordinate economic and political power,” Oren told JTA. “Unintentionally, perhaps, Friedman has strengthened a dangerous myth.”
Friedman told The Jewish Week that he stood by his overall argument that American Jews are deeply worried about where Israel is going today.
“It would have helped people focus on my argument, which I stand by 100 percent,” he said.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
