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But the other part of the deal, which is seen as critical to winning support in Congress, is for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. There are a lot of “ifs” and “provided thats” in this equation that seem most unlikely today. As a result, the U.S. and the Saudis are considering finalizing the deal and taking it to Congress with the stated proviso that Saudi Arabia will normalize relations with Israel the minute Israel has a government ready to meet the Saudi-U.S. terms. Hopefully, though, if there can be a permanent end of fighting and a return of all Israelis taken hostage, Israel will hold new elections. And then — maybe, just maybe — the choice on the table for Israelis will not be Bibi or no Bibi, but Bibi or a credible pathway to peace with Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians.
Persons: Biden, Israel, , Netanyahu, Bibi Organizations: U.S, West Bank, Palestinian, Saudi, New York, Facebook Locations: U.S, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Taiwan, Israel, Gaza
U.S. diplomacy to end the Gaza war and forge a new relationship with Saudi Arabia has been converging in recent weeks into a single giant choice for Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: What do you want more — Rafah or Riyadh? Do you want to mount a full-scale invasion of Rafah to try to finish off Hamas — if that is even possible — without offering any Israeli exit strategy from Gaza or any political horizon for a two-state solution with non-Hamas-led Palestinians? If you go this route, it will only compound Israel’s global isolation and force a real breach with the Biden administration. Or do you want normalization with Saudi Arabia, an Arab peacekeeping force for Gaza and a U.S.-led security alliance against Iran? And what I find both disturbing and depressing is that there is no major Israeli leader today in the ruling coalition, the opposition or the military who is consistently helping Israelis understand that choice — a global pariah or a Middle East partner — or explaining why it should choose the second.
Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden, Israel, Organizations: Israel, Hamas, Iran, Palestinian Locations: Gaza, Saudi Arabia, Rafah, Riyadh, Arab, U.S, Israel, East
Their friendship was tested in 2017 when then President Trump supported a blockade of Qatar led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Before the Oct. 7 attack, the Saudis were in serious talks, led by the United States, to recognize Israel. 8 of 12 Israel has a major incentive to strengthen relations with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, for its part, would benefit from direct access to the Israeli military and technology sector. In March 2023, China brokered a breakthrough, re-establishing ties between two of the region’s heavyweights, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, brandished, Jake Sullivan, , frenemies, Israel, Netanyahu’s, Trump, Biden, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin, Prince Mohammed, Bashar al, Assad, Saddam Hussein, Jordan —, hesitantly, Abraham Organizations: of Friends, General Assembly, U.S, America, Hamas, United, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Crown, Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Red Sea, Iranian, Abraham Accords, United Arab, Palestine Liberation Organization, West Bank, Palestinian Authority, The, Trump, Biden, Israel Defense Forces, United Nations, New York, Facebook Locations: India, Persian, Israel, Europe, Iran, United States, U.S, East, China, Russia, Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Turkey Syria Lebanon Afghanistan Israel Iraq Iran Pakistan Egypt India Qatar Saudi Arabia Sudan Oman, Israel Yemen Turkey Syria Lebanon Afghanistan Israel Iraq Iran Pakistan Egypt India Qatar Saudi Arabia Arabian, Sudan, Sea Oman, Israel Yemen Ethiopia Turkey Syria Lebanon Afghanistan Israel Iraq Iran Pakistan Egypt India Qatar Saudi Arabia Arabian, Sudan Oman, Israel Yemen Ethiopia, Gaza, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab, Saudi, Tehran, Iraq, Assad, Lebanon, Lebanese, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Fatah, Israeli, Turkey, America
Listen to and follow ‘Matter of Opinion’The columnist Thomas L. Friedman joined the hosts of “Matter of Opinion” this week to unpack Israel’s and Iran’s latest attacks, what they mean for Gaza and the implications for the region writ large. Below is a lightly edited transcript of this episode. To listen to this episode, click the play button below.
Persons: Thomas L, Friedman, unpack Locations: Gaza
Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel over the weekend was a game-changing escalation that requires some game-changing rethinking on the part of Israel and its most important ally, the United States. I call it “the three-state solution.”It begins with the recognition that there is probably zero hope for any resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Israel-Iran conflict without leadership change in Tehran, Jerusalem and Ramallah. “This region won’t see any meaningful peace or stability so long as this current government is in power in Tehran,” explained Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. To paraphrase Shimon Peres about prospects for change in Iran, the good news is there is light at the end of that tunnel. The bad news is that today there is no tunnel.”
Persons: , Karim Sadjadpour, Shimon Peres Organizations: Carnegie Endowment, International Locations: Israel, United States, Iran, Tehran, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanese, Yemenis
That would be a dangerous misreading of what just happened and a huge geopolitical mistake by the West and the world at large. There must be a consequence for Iran: When the regime fired all those drones and missiles, it did not know that virtually all of them would be intercepted. A missile could have hit al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest shrines. (You can see pictures online of Iranian rockets being intercepted in the skies right over the mosque.) Another could have hit the Israeli Parliament or a high-rise apartment house, causing massive casualties.
Persons: Syria — Organizations: Israel, West Locations: Iran, Israel, Syria, Jerusalem, Aqsa
It is so dangerous and troubling that Israel’s best option, when all is said and done, might be to leave a rump Hamas leadership in power in Gaza. I argued in October that Israel was making a terrible mistake by rushing headlong into invading Gaza, the way America did in Afghanistan after 9/11. I thought Israel should have focused first on getting back its hostages, delegitimizing Hamas for its murderous and rapacious Oct. 7 rampage, and going after Hamas’s leadership in a targeted way — more Munich, less Dresden. That is, a military response akin to how Israel tracked down the killers of its athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and not how the U.S. turned Dresden into a pile of rubble in World War II. That approach would have won the support, funding and, I think, even peacekeeping troops of moderate Arab states like the U.A.E.
Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden, Israel, Organizations: U.S, Hamas, Hamas Palestinian Authority, West Bank, Palestinian Authority Locations: Israel, Gaza, Afghanistan, Munich, Dresden, U.S
One of my ironclad rules of journalism is this: When you see an elephant flying, don’t laugh, don’t doubt, don’t sneer — take notes. Something very new and important is happening and we need to understand it. Last week, I saw an elephant fly: The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer — an authentic, lifelong supporter of Israel — gave a speech calling on Israelis to hold an election as soon as possible in order to dump Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right cabinet. And it produced predictable responses from the Jewish right (Schumer is a traitor), from Netanyahu (Israel is “not a banana republic”) and from cynics (Schumer’s just cozying up to the Democratic left). All predictable responses, and all wrong responses.
Persons: don’t, Chuck Schumer, Israel —, Benjamin Netanyahu, Schumer, Israel, , Netanyahu, Netanyahu —, Biden Organizations: Democratic Locations: Netanyahu, cynics, U.S
Opinion | Netanyahu Is Making Israel Radioactive
  + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +2 min
With enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran, Israel should be enjoying the sympathy of much of the world. No fair-minded person could deny Israel the right of self-defense after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 Israelis in one day. Women were sexually abused, and children were killed in front of their parents and parents in front of their children. Scores of abducted Israeli men, women, children and elderly people are still being held hostage in terrible conditions, now for more than 150 days. Urban warfare brings out the absolute worst in people, and that is certainly true for Israel in Gaza.
Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu Organizations: West Bank Locations: Israel, Iran, Gaza, U.S
Opinion | Inside America’s Shadow War With Iran
  + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +1 min
You could hold a friendly regatta in the Taiwan Straits compared to where I just visited. I spent two days last week hopscotching in a CH-47 Chinook helicopter among seven U.S. military bases in western Jordan and eastern Syria with America’s senior Middle East Centcom commander, Gen. Michael Kurilla. What you have, instead, is the other Middle East war that began shortly after the tragic Israel-Hamas war that broke out on Oct. 7. They have learned to arm, build, adapt and deploy some of the most sophisticated precision weaponry in the world. That weaponry, provided by Iran, can hit a three-foot-wide target 500 miles away.
Persons: It’s, Michael Kurilla Organizations: Chinese Navy, Air Force, U.S . Navy, America’s, East, ISIS, U.S Locations: Taiwan, China, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Iran, Iraq, U.S, Gulf of Aden, Yemen
And if Biden is not careful, America’s global standing will plummet right along with Israel’s. I don’t think Israelis or the Biden administration fully appreciate the rage that is bubbling up around the world, fueled by social media and TV footage, over the deaths of so many thousands of Palestinian civilians, particularly children, with U.S.-supplied weapons in Israel’s war in Gaza. Hamas has much to answer for in triggering this human tragedy, but Israel and the U.S. are seen as driving events now and getting most of the blame. That such anger is boiling over in the Arab world is obvious, but I heard it over and over again in conversations in India during the past week — from friends, business leaders, an official and journalists both young and old. That many civilian deaths in a relatively short war would be problematic in any context.
Persons: I’ve, Biden, Narendra Modi, , Benjamin Netanyahu Organizations: Biden, U.S, Israel, West Bank Locations: New Delhi, Dubai, Amman, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, U.S, India
I’ve got a suggestion for the next Trump-G.O.P. You know how sports memorabilia stores sometimes sell basketballs autographed by an entire N.B.A. For an extra $500, you could get a white flag autographed solely by Trump and J.D. This is a matter of principle for me. But I got a round of golf at Trump’s West Palm Beach course.
Persons: I’ve, Donald Trump, MAGA sycophants he’s, Vladimir Putin’s, Vance, Mike Johnson, Trump, Lindsey Graham, , John McCain, Graham, you’ve Organizations: Trump Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Palm
I understand why many in an Israeli society still traumatized by the Hamas surprise attack on Oct. 7 don’t want to hear talk of a Palestinian state, even in a demilitarized form. But for many Israelis that was true for years before the Gaza war. To continue ignoring the subject now would be a grave error. Israel needs to shape it, not ignore it. This will force Israel’s Arab allies to distance themselves from the Jewish state.
Persons: Organizations: Israel, Israel reconnecting, West Bank Locations: Israel, America, Saudi Arabia, Palestinian, Gaza
Every so often there is a piece of legislation on Capitol Hill that defines America and its values — that shows what kind of country we want to be. Will America carry the red, white and blue flag into the future — or just a white flag? Given the pessimistic talk coming out of the Capitol, it is looking more and more like the white flag — autographed by Donald Trump. bumper sticker: Trump First. … The hard-core MAGA wing represents a minority within a minority, yet our institutional rules permit them to veto decisions clearly favored by a majority of Americans.”
Persons: America, Donald Trump, ” “, Vladimir Putin, Trump, Today’s, Putin, Francis Fukuyama, , Organizations: Capitol, Washington, Republican Party, ” “ Trump, America, Purpose, MAGA Locations: America, Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel, United States
In this audio essay, the columnist Thomas L. Friedman proposes a three-pronged strategy for the president to address the widening crisis in the Middle East, which he calls the “Biden Doctrine.” The approach would focus on retaliating against Iran’s proxies in the region and supporting a Palestinian state. If successful, Friedman believes this plan could lead to the creation of a “credible, legitimate, effective, demilitarized Palestinian state that can live in peace and security with Israel.”(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available midday on the Times website.)
Persons: Thomas L, Friedman, Biden, Organizations: Israel, Times Locations: Palestinian
There are two things I believe about the widening crisis in the Middle East. We are about to see a new Biden administration strategy unfold to address this multifront war involving Gaza, Iran, Israel and the region — what I hope will be a “Biden Doctrine” that meets the seriousness and complexity of this dangerous moment. And if we don’t see such a big, bold doctrine, the crisis in the region is going to metastasize in ways that will strengthen Iran, isolate Israel and leave America’s ability to influence events there for the better in tatters. A Biden Doctrine — as I’m terming the convergence of strategic thinking and planning that my reporting has picked up — would have three tracks. On one track would be a strong and resolute stand on Iran, including a robust military retaliation against Iran’s proxies and agents in the region in response to the killing of three U.S. soldiers at a base in Jordan by a drone apparently launched by a pro-Iranian militia in Iraq.
Persons: Biden, , tatters ., Organizations: Biden Locations: Gaza, Iran, Israel, tatters, Jordan, Iraq
While the two battlefronts may look very different, they actually have a lot in common. On one side is the Resistance Network, dedicated to preserving closed, autocratic systems where the past buries the future. On the other side is the Inclusion Network, trying to forge more open, connected, pluralizing systems where the future buries the past. Who wins the struggles between these two networks will determine a lot about the dominant character of this post-post-Cold War epoch. Their hearts, and often pocketbooks, are with the Resistors but their heads with the Includers.)
Persons: Iran’s, Xi Organizations: West, Soviet, Resistance Network, Inclusion Locations: Ukraine, Israel, Arab, , Russia, Iran, China
I’ve never seen it so broken,” Thomas L. Friedman, a New York Times Opinion columnist who has been covering the Middle East for decades, tells me. It’s been just over 100 days since Hamas’s attack on Israel, and the costs of the war are staggering. In polling from late fall, 64 percent of Gazans reported that a family member had been killed or injured. Israel believes that more than 100 hostages are being held captive in Gaza, and polling reveals that Hamas has gained popularity among Palestinians while support for Israel has plummeted around the world. When this war ends, will Israel really be safer?
Persons: I’ve, ” Thomas L, Friedman, It’s, Gazans, , Ezra Klein Organizations: New York, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, Hamas Locations: East, Israel, Gaza
Opinion | Netanyahu Is Turning Against Biden
  + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +2 min
It looks as if President Biden will be running in two races this year: one in America against Donald Trump and one in Israel against Benjamin Netanyahu. Maybe Trump could name Netanyahu his running mate and we could save a lot of time. Biden’s support for the Israeli leader is costing him with his own progressive base, while Netanyahu is now turning on Biden in ways that could win Trump fresh support from right-wing American Jews. Because at a nationally televised news conference on Thursday, Netanyahu made clear something he only hinted at in recent weeks. So vote for me, even if I messed up on Oct. 7 and the Gaza war is not going all that great.
Persons: Biden, Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump, Netanyahu, Organizations: Biden, Trump, West Bank Locations: America, Israel, Palestinian, Gaza, Bibi
As Israel debates what to do next in Gaza, I hope Israel’s political-military leadership will reflect on the adage often attributed to Confucius: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves” — one for your enemy and one for yourself. The reason I was so wary about Israel invading Gaza with the aim of totally eliminating Hamas was certainly not out of any sympathy for Hamas, which has been a curse on the Palestinian people even more than on Israel. It was out of a deep concern that Israel was acting out of blind rage, aiming at an unattainable goal — wiping Hamas from the face of the earth as one of its ministers advocated — and with no plan for the morning after. Quite honestly, I thought back to America after 9/11. And I asked myself, what do I wish I had done more of before we launched two wars of revenge and transformation in Afghanistan and Iraq for which they and we paid a huge price?
Persons: Confucius, Israel Locations: Israel, Gaza, America, Afghanistan, Iraq
The reason the Hamas-Israel war can be hard for outsiders to understand is that three wars are going on at the same time: a war between Israeli Jews and the Palestinians exacerbated by a terrorist group, a war within Israeli and Palestinian societies over the future, and a war between Iran and its proxies and America and its allies. But before we dig into those wars, here’s the most important thing to keep in mind about them: There’s a single formula that can maximize the chances that the forces of decency can prevail in all three. Pay particular attention to that last point: a revamped Palestinian Authority is the keystone for the forces of moderation, coexistence and decency triumphing in all three wars. It is the keystone for reviving a two-state solution. It is the keystone for creating a stable foundation for the normalization of relations between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab-Muslim world.
Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Amos Harel, Netanyahu “, Netanyahu Organizations: Palestinian Authority, West Bank, NATO, Palestinian Locations: Israel, Iran, America, Palestinian, Saudi Arabia, United States, Gaza
Abbas is a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel who happens to be a devout Muslim and a member of Israel’s parliament, where he leads the important United Arab List party. And we cannot condemn it and say ‘but’ — that word ‘but’ has become immoral.” (Recent polls show overwhelming Israeli Arab condemnation of the Hamas attack.) Abbas sees the complexities lived by that Israeli Jewish mother in Jerusalem who never lost trust in her kids’ Palestinian Arab teacher, and by that Israeli Arab bicycle shop owner who spontaneously reached out a hand to ease the pain of Jewish children he’d never met. At the same time, though, Abbas spoke about the searing pain Israeli Palestinian Arabs and Bedouins feel at seeing their relatives pummeled and killed in Gaza. “One of the hardest things today is to be an Israeli Arab,” Abbas said to me.
Persons: , Alaa Amara, Thomas Hobbes, Walter Mondale, Mondale, Mansour Abbas, Abbas, , he’d, pummeled, ” Abbas, Organizations: West Bank, Jewish Locations: Israel, Jerusalem, Palestinian, Israeli, Taibe, Arab, Gaza, Jordan, Tel Aviv, Muslim,
We will either have to become captives of Netanyahu’s strategy — which could take us all down with him — or articulate our own American vision for how the Gaza war must end. That would require a Biden administration plan to create two states for two indigenous peoples living in the areas of Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. The Biden plan — are you sitting down? Resolutions 242 and 338, which was also the cornerstone for negotiations in the peace plan put forward by President Trump in 2020. Is the Palestinian Authority up to such a deal?
Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden, Israel, Netanyahu, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Yoav Gallant, Benny Gantz, , Palestinian Authority —, Israel …, , ” Bibi —, West Bank —, Antony Blinken, Blinken, , don’t, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben, — Netanyahu, , President Trump, “ Bibi, ” Biden, Jan, ‘ Netanyahu, Gidi, Ehud Barak’s, Camp David, Grinstein, It’s, Will Israel’s, Ronald Lauder, couldn’t, Israel — Organizations: West Bank, Israel, U.S, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian, Times, Biden, National Security, Aipac, United Arab, Associated Press, Camp, Jewish, Republican, World Jewish Locations: Israel, United States, Gaza, America, Washington, Oslo, West Bank —, Tokyo, Palestinian, Europe, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Palestine, Saudi, Iran
After traveling around Israel and the West Bank, I now understand why so much has changed. It is crystal clear to me that Israel is in real danger — more danger than at any time since its War of Independence in 1948. Last Saturday night, a retired Israeli Army commander stopped by my hotel in Tel Aviv to share his perspective on the war. Consider this context: “According to Israel’s official Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2021, 9.449 million people live in Israel (including Israelis in West Bank settlements), the Times of Israel reported last year. Let me not mince words, because the hour is dark and Israel, as I said, is in real danger.
Persons: I’ve, , Vladimir Putin, Biden, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Kiryat Shmona, Kibbutz, Liat Admati, “ Mahmoud, , he’d, , Yoav Gallant, Netanyahu, Israel’s, Biden —, Ron Scherf Organizations: West Bank, Yemen —, West Bank —, U.S, Israeli Army, Iranian, Hamas, Sunday, The Times, ABC News, Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinian, Statistics, West Bank Palestinian, West, Palestinian Authority, Brothers Locations: Tel Aviv, Israel, America, U.S, Independence, Iraq, Yemen, Jerusalem, Hamas, Gaza, United States, Israeli, Kiryat, Lebanon, Kibbutz Be’eri, Be’eri, Mefalsim, “ Israel, West Bank, Netanyahu Israel
Opinion | Seeing the Big Picture in Two Big Wars
  + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +9 min
Step back far enough, and you can see exactly what is driving so much geopolitics today: Ukraine is trying to join the West. Or they would have agreed to Lend-Lease assistance for the allies only if President Franklin Roosevelt would eliminate the I.R.S. That’s why today America must help Israel and Ukraine to blunt the Russia-Iran axis in their theaters. But the morning after their wars, Israel and Ukraine are going to have to face some very hard choices. Because while we may write big checks to both today, they will not be blank checks.
Persons: Mike Johnson, Biden, Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt, G.O.P, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Leon Aron, Vladimir Putin’s, , , gunning, ” Aron, Israel, Donald Trump, , Benjamin Netanyahu Organizations: Internal Revenue, Lease, Fox News, NATO, European, Palestinian Authority, , West Bank, Hamas, Putin, Iran’s, U.S, Patriot, Republicans, Palestinian, European Union Locations: Ukraine, West, Israel, Russia, Iran, cheaters, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Saudi, Tehran, Moscow, Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Belarus, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Gaza, It’s, Kyiv, Gaza City, U.S, Ramallah, America
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