Making a selection that signals the true sea change in U.S. policy toward Israel and the Middle East that will be forthcoming after his January 20th inauguration, President-elect Trump has chosen to nominate David M. Friedman, a name partner of the Kasowitz law firm and Chairman of Kasowitz’s Creditor Rights and Bankruptcy Practice Group, to be the U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Mr. Friedman, a 58 year old Orthodox Jewish bankruptcy lawyer who has represented Mr. Trump for many years is a 1978 graduate of Columbia University and a 1981 graduate of New York University Law School. Mr. Trump calls Friedman a “longtime friend and trusted adviser”.
A co-chair of Mr. Trump’s Israel Advisory Committee, Mr. Friedman holds hard-line conservative views on Israel and the Middle East that are diametrically opposed to the views of the Obama Administration and that, in several respects, are seen as more extreme than those of Israel Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu. Mr. Friedman is a strong supporter of Israeli settlement construction who says that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are not illegal. As the President of Bet El Institutions, Mr. Friedman has personally provided significant financial assistance to an Orthodox West Bank settlement community and to housing and community development projects throughout Israel. He is an advocate of increased aid for Israel, and has also pledged to help Mr. Trump immediately undo the U.S. deal with Iran. He also has suggested that Mr. Trump could be open to Israel’s annexation of certain West Bank territories with substantial Jewish populations that would eventually be Israel’s if a peace deal is ever reached.
Mr. Friedman has expressed great skepticism about the viability of a two-state solution, questioned the need for a Palestinian state, denied the demographic claims that Israel would have to give up what he calls Judea and Samaria in order to remain a Jewish state, and said that no third party, including Mr. Trump should pressure Israel to make peace with the Palestinians and that, as president, Mr. Trump would not do so. Instead, Mr. Friedman says that “…. the President-elect supports respecting the independence of the Israeli government and their democratically elected leadership to reach, without pressure from the United States, their own vision of how the Israelis and the Palestinians should live side by side.”
Mr. Friedman also has a tendency to speak colorfully, often in highly provocative terms. For example, he once compared Jewish supporters of a two-state solution to “kapos” — that is, those Jews who Nazi guards assigned to monitor other Jews in concentration camps. He has spoken derisively of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas saying that “he was not a legitimate leader.”
Similarly, in his first statement after his nomination was announced, Mr. Friedman pledged to work tirelessly to strengthen the bonds between the United States and Israel and advance the cause of peace in the region and said that he “.. look[s] forward to doing this from the U.S. Embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem”, a statement sure to enrage both the Palestinians and J Street.
