David Friedman Israel Ambassador Quotes: Trump’s Pick Has Extreme Views About Liberal Jews, Possible Palestinian State, Obama

Another of Donald Trump’s nominees was set to face a tough ride in his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday. The president's pick for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, was expected to face questions over a number of his controversial views.

Members of the Foreign Relations Committee, who will hold Friedman’s hearing, have already been made aware of some of the opposition to Friedman taking up the post. Five former United States ambassadors to Israel wrote a letter to the committee Wednesday declaring him unqualified for the job due to his “extreme, radical positions.”

That followed a letter signed by 600 rabbis and cantors opposing what they dubbed an “extreme” nominee.

Here are some of Friedman’s quotes from his time as a columnist for Israel National News that have made the bankruptcy such a controversial nomination.

“There has never been a ‘two-state solution’ – only a ‘two-state narrative.’” (Feb. 2, 2016)
Friedman has called the two-state solution, which for decades has been the stated goal of the United States, “an illusion that serves the worst intentions of both the United States and the Palestinian Arabs.”

Arguing that Palestinians were being “subjugated” by “corrupt” and “villainous” leaders, Friedman said that an independent Palestinian state is not necessary and that many Palestinians would be happy being a part of an Israeli state.

“They know there’s a better life out there, they know that Israeli Arabs receive the best education from the best universities in the Middle East,” he said.

Trump has also backed away from a two-state solution at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday.

"So I'm looking at two states and one state," he said. "And I like the one that both parties like."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded by saying there was “no alternative” to a two-state solution.

“The blatant anti-Semitism emanating from our President and his sycophantic minions is palpable and very disturbing.” (Aug. 20, 2016)
In response to President Barack Obama signing a deal with Iran in 2015, Friedman compared his actions to the Dreyfus Affair at the turn of the 20th century, when a Jewish artillery captain in the French army was falsely convicted of giving military secrets to the Germans. He was paraded before an angry mob in Paris shouting “Death to Judas, death to the Jew.”

Friedman was particularly hostile toward Obama’s response to those who opposed the deal, including Jewish Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. Friedman argued that the affair was further evidence that an independent Jewish state was the only way Jews could be safe from anti-Semitism.

“[J Street Supporters] are far worse than kapos.” (May. 6, 2016)
Responding to an op-ed critical of his appointment as an adviser to Trump on Israel during the campaign, Friedman likened liberal Jews to those who turned on their fellow Jews in Nazi concentration camps. Having already been slammed for comparing J Street, a lobbying organization that campaigns for peace and has been critical of some Israeli policies, Friedman doubled down.

“They are far worse than kapos – Jews who turned in their fellow Jews in the Nazi death camps,” he wrote. “The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty and who knows what any of us would have done under those circumstances to save a loved one? But J Street? They are just smug advocates of Israel’s destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas – it’s hard to imagine anyone worse.”