Political Quotes

“Senate will soon vote on the nomination of David Friedman to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel. I oppose his nomination. Mr. Friedman has made a career of derogatory and inflammatory statements about U.S. policy in the Middle East, about former U.S. officials, about the Palestinians, and about American Jews who have views that differ from his own. He has written falsely that President Obama and Secretary Kerry engaged in ``blatant anti-Semitism,'' that liberal American Jews are ``far worse than kapos,'' and that they ``suffer a cognitive disconnect in identifying good and evil.'' He has accused the State Department of a ``hundred-year history of anti-Semitism,'' apparently because diplomats in both Republican and Democratic administrations have not always agreed with the actions of some of Israel's leaders. Those comments alone should disqualify him for this sensitive position. Mr. Friedman has also raised millions of dollars for Israeli settlers and bragged about leading the effort to remove the two-state solution from the Republican Party's platform. Regarding the two-state solution, he wrote that it is ``an illusion that serves the worst intentions of both the United States and the Palestinian Arabs.'' That renunciation of longstanding U.S. policy should also, by itself, disqualify him for the job of Ambassador to Israel. Mr. Friedman is certainly entitled to his own views as a private citizen, even if they are offensive and counter to U.S. interests and values.…”