Thomas Friedman is full of himself

Yet Thomas Friedman will play his arrogant scolding parent posture to the hilt. That is the role he plays when he condescendingly declares  that “Israel today really is behaving like a spoiled child.”.He continues it when he pontificates about how “Israel needs a wake-up call”. It continues with the title of his op-ed aimed at all the wrongs of Israel called “Just knock it off,”. Friedman actually descends into an even more pathetic almost pouting stance when confronted with Obama’s deteriorating relationship with Israel . He then plaintively declares without any corroborating facts the following “Please spare me the nonsense that President Obama is anti-Israel…He’s doing his job.”

When Moshe came down from Mount Sinai with the knowledge that his people were sinning with the golden calf he is met halfway by Joshua. Joshua says to him  “…There is a voice of battle in the camp!”( Exodus 32:17)  But Moshe answers him”[It is] neither a voice shouting victory, nor a voice shouting defeat; a voice of blasphemy I hear ‘Kol Anot Anochi Shomeah’.” ( Exodus 32:18)  Yet this could be read as I hear the voice of anochi. I hear the voice of selfish preoccupation ( ENOCHIYUT) , the voice of arrogant selfishness. This is what led to idolatry.

When one is full of himself then there is no room for truth. The facts will not get in the way of one’s paradigm. Yet at times G-d puts into the mouths of such men the words which become self parody.Pop psychologists used to call such statements a Freudian slip. They miss the point. Its a G-d thing. G-d puts in the mouth of arrogant people the very words that reflect so badly on the speaker himself.

For Friedman to call the Israeli cabinet recently in his last “scathing” attack on Israel “‘out-of-touch, in-bred, unimaginative and cliché-driven’; ” is actually humorous . It is funny because in essence he has simply described himself and all that he has written in the near past. He like his president is out of touch. He, like his president have become part an in-bred little clique of liberal thinkers who all think the same thing . More importantly he believes the world functions along the lines of simple black and white cliche’s and solutions . Just like his president.

So he may continue to rant and berate but the world will continue to develop in the more complex fashion that it is wont to do. The Democracy revolution in Egypt will deteriorate into anarchy for a period and then settle for more dictatorship. Similar upheavals will not necessarily move in the direction this administration fantasizes about. They will probably lead to more chaos along the lines of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It would be glorious if President Obama and his apologist Friedman would be correct in their story book view of our world. Regrettably we in this region and inevitably the world will have to pick up the pieces when the fantasy shatters. Yet by then history and destiny will have forgotten people like  Thomas Friedman