https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-tom-friedman.html?showTranscript=1
On Israel, the three thoughts are that Israel is an amazing place. What it’s built in 75 years is amazing by way of ingathering of exiles, of culture, of revival of literature, of science, technology, agriculture. Israel, it’s an amazing achievement, number one.
Number two, Israel does really bad stuff sometimes, particularly in the West Bank, steals Palestinians’ land, allows settlers to kill Palestinians with impunity, lets Israeli Arabs be treated as second-class citizens. And third, Israel lives in a crazy, dangerous neighborhood, and the weak don’t survive.
Now, the same, I believe, is true with Palestinians. Thought number one, Palestinians suffered a true what they call Nakba, a communal tragedy. Another people, an Indigenous people but another people, came back in large numbers to claim their historic homeland. And even if they were ready to share it, in the end, for Palestinians, it resulted in a mass refugee population being created of people who were driven out or left by fear.
And it was a real communal tragedy that no community should ever want to endure. And they’re calling it a Nakba. A great tragedy is not an exaggeration.
Number two is Palestinians do bad and stupid stuff. They missed enormous opportunities. They’ve fought each other. They’ve done vile things to Jews. They have had a government that tolerated too much corruption. They do bad stuff.
And third, Palestinians live in an incredibly dangerous neighborhood that has often exploited them. There’s a phrase in Arabic for many years from 1948 until the present. It said, no voice shall be louder than the battle. Every Arab dictator loved to use that quote, no voice shall be louder than the battle.
That was saying no voice should be louder than the battle for Palestine. Therefore, don’t pay attention to my autocracy and my corruption. Let’s just talk about Palestine. They were used by the neighborhood in ways that were unfair and deeply detrimental to their cause.