Representative Press Blog

Thomas Friedman is a dishonest manipulative bastard.

Back in 1998 he was trying to deceive the American public about the motives behind the terrorism: Terrorists, he wrote in 1998 after terrorists attacked two US embassies in Africa, "have no specific ideological program or demands. Rather, they are driven by a generalized hatred of the US, Israel and other supposed enemies of Islam." That is bullshit.

Thomas Friedman lies about bin Laden's motives. Friedman claims, " the fact is that bin Laden never focused on this issue. He only started talking about "Palestine" after September 11, when he sensed that he might be losing the support of the Arab street. " (p311 of Longitudes & Attitudes ) and " Osama bin Laden never mentioned the Palestinian cause as motivating his actions until he felt he was losing support in the Arab world. " (p361-362 of Longitudes & Attitudes ) What Friedman has written is a flat out lie. To give just one example that disproves what Friedman wrote: "Your position against Muslims in Palestine is despicable and disgraceful. America has no shame. " - Osama bin Laden May 1998 I also have to wonder how in this invented scenario Friedman "knows" what bin Laden "sensed" about the Arab street. see the threat we face can be removed

Friedman also suppresses the history of the Palestinian-Israel conflict and he lies about recent events as well. I saw him on C-SPAN were someone pointed out that the US has been vetoing resolutions that would have served to end the conflict, Friedman claimed that the resolutions were not relevant. Talking about the Palestinian issue Friedman said "Then again, it would be nice if we had some help. Be nice if Crown Prince abdella and President Mubarak got on a plane and went to Israel and addressed the Israeli people directly. That might help too. We aren't exactly the only ones retarding this issue. Were not the only ones dropping the ball. ... I am a little bit tired of people telling us you have to resolve this. It is in your power to do this." When the questioner pointed out all the US vetoes and US votes blocking peace options Friedman dishonestly replied, "Oh this isn't about UN money, it isn't about UN vetoes" Then someone on the panel jumped in saying "we don't have time to get into all of that." What "all of that" is is US rejectionism for over 30 years. Find a list of all the votes and vetoes the US has done against resolving this issue and you will see what a sick bastard Friedman is.

Friedman was on Tim Russert (9/23/03) and again he was lying and manipulating. He talked about a "cease fire" between Israel and the Palestinians referring to is the six week period that Israel expected a cease fire from the Palestinians and that it didn't apply to Israel. I kid you not, what most people assume and what Freidman is intentionally misleading viewers about is the idea that Israel was party to the cease fire. But the fact is, IT WASN'T.
Israel never considered itself part of the cease fire and it continued attacks and killings during those 6 weeks. Then the media (and of course Friedman) played it like it was the Palestinians who broke a cease fire between the two parties.

Friedman is a propagandist. As Noam Chomsky wrote in his book Fateful Triangle, "When the intellectual history of this period is someday written, it will scarcely be believed."
Here is an accurate history of the so called cease fire: fair.org "Relative Calm"

Here is the transcript of Thomas Friedman lying on Tim Russert:
"Let's look what happened this summer. We had a seven week cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel said, "I'll ease up here on you". Palestinians said, "You do that, there won't be anymore suicide bombing." Palestinians were able to sustain it for seven weeks - it wasn't perfect - but guess what Tim, perfect ain't on the menu in the Middle East. You want perfect, go to Korea. It's not on the menu in the Middle East, alright. But it was good enough that so many Israelis told me, "God, if we could only go back to that cease-fire" -Thomas Friedman on Tim Russert 9/23/03

Friedman is deceiving the public into thinking there was a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians. He does this by saying, "We had a seven week cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians." The media and Freidman gave this false impression (many outlets even used the words "truce" as well which again gives the false impression that Israel was not continuing attacks, another example of media distortion and bias for Israel.).

So the public is tricked into thinking that Israel was reasonable enough to stop attacks and that the Palestinians ruined an agreement between themselves and Israel which never existed. You really don't see how corrupt Freidman and the media are? It is outrageous that Israel didn't agree to stop all aggression. The Palestinians are being occupied and they have a right to resist. Israel going around "arresting" or killing Palestinians is unacceptable.
Israel has violated law and the rights of the Palestinians for decades. Setting up a racist state is not legitimate. Thinking that it is OK to continue to attack and kill Palestinians is crazy. The fact that Israel continued to build settlements the entire time the so called peace process was being attempted shows just how sick the Israeli government really is. (the US mainstream media suppresses the fact that these settlements are illegal by not reporting the fact that they are illegal)