Friedman's Terrible Man Uncovered

 Nadene Goldfoot

Thomas Friedman today again (on program April 4, 2026) called by Snohomish on his program to give his views on the Iranian War,  called  Netanyahu a terrible terrible terrible man and made it clear that little Israel has all this power over Trump and caused him to go to war with him !!! Wow!  I didn't know we had all that power!!

Prime Minister Netanyahu  has served Israel as their prime minister for many but different years, especially when it looks like they are going to be wiped out, but here was one time he wasn't the PM.  Maybe this was when he saw this strike in action by Eshkol. 

                 Strait of Tiran-closing it to Israel was only part of the attack as many Arab states were attacking her at the time  

I remember the 6 Day War the most. AI remembers, too.   "The war you are referring to is the Six-Day War, which took place from June 5–10, 1967. Fearing an imminent attack by surrounding Arab states—following Egypt’s massing of troops in the Sinai, closing of the Straits of Tiran, and rising rhetoric—Israel launched a surprise preemptive air strike on June 5th, destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground. "

 Levi Eshkol was the Prime Minister of Israel during June 1967 and the Six-Day War. Serving from 1963 to 1969, Eshkol led the country during this period, though he appointed Moshe Dayan as Defense Minister just before the conflict began on June 5, 1967. 

Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, holding office for over 16 years across three (3)distinct periods (1996–1999 (3 year period),  2009–2021(12 year period) , and Dec 2022–present of 2026 (4 years)

    Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and son  The first Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, held power for approximately 10 years, from the Islamic Revolution in February 1979 until his death on June 3, 1989. He returned from exile on February 1, 1979, and officially became the supreme leader in December 1979. 

                    Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei   Ali Hosseini Khamenei (19 April 1939 – 28 February 2026) was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination in the 2026 Iran war (37 years of hell for Israel just with 2nd supreme leader of Iran). (Netanyahu was his enemy from 2009 to 2021).  

Opposition to Iran:  Everyone knows that ever since the Ayatollah regime has taken over Iran, Israel and its people have been suffering.  Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became the first Supreme Leader of Iran in 1979. Following the Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the Shah, Khomeini returned from exile on February 1, 1979, and the Islamic Republic was officially established in April of that year. Their stated goal has been to destroy Israel.  Iran's Ayatollahs, led by Ali Khamenei until 2026, have historically sought the dismantling of the state of Israel, viewing it as an "illegitimate" entity and "cancerous tumor". They seek to replace it with a Palestinian state through a "final solution" involving long-term resistance, funding regional proxies (Axis of Resistance), and pursuing nuclear/missile technology. 

Iran primarily uses its "Axis of Resistance," a network of regional proxies, to attack Israel. Key actors include Hezbollah (Lebanon), which conducts rocket fire, and the Houthis (Yemen), who launch missiles. Additionally, Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria are involved. Russia and China provide strategic military/tech support.  Lately, Israel was fighting on 7 fronts.  

An old lady looked at me and said threatingly,  "Trump's son -in law is Jewish, isn't he?"  She was talking about Jared Kushner.  Yes, I said.  People, that doesn't give reason for Trump to listen to one opinion.  He's been known, said so on Snohomish's program, that his habit is to have many opinionated people at his table, goes around and asks each his opinion.  (Trump is not known to read much at all, so has little background, but depends on other's this way.)  

Would Americans accept Russia daily saying how they were trash and were going to be wiped out by them?  What Israel did was to build bomb shelters for everyone, schools, homes, etc. Then Russia had the day come when they were ready to drop the A Bomb on Israel and wipe it out in one sweep.  Do you think the Democrats would sit idly by and say, okay?

Benjamin Netanyahu's 2012 UN "red line" speech is one of his most well-known visual presentations regarding Iran's nuclear program.                                    

• The Poster: On September 27, 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly holding a poster-board with a cartoon-style diagram of a bomb.     It shows how close Iran is to having  nuclear warfare. A man today of age 30 was born in 1996 and 16 years old in 2012.  Think how shaky they must feel fearing to be hit any moment by an Atomic bomb !  I tell you, Israeli 16 yr olds would have been affected a lot.  They know that they had 2 more years and then the service.                                
  
    This poster is of an Iranian rocket heading towards Israel
• The Content: The diagram showed a bomb divided into three stages of uranium enrichment (labeled 3.5%, 20%, and 90%).
• The "Red Line": Netanyahu argued that Iran was 70% of the way toward enriching enough uranium for a weapon. He then took a red marker and drew a line near the top, stating: "A red line should be drawn right here... before Iran completes the second stage of nuclear enrichment to make a bomb".
• In the meantime since 2012, Israel has been defending its land from countries armed by Iran.  
• Friedman put Netanyhu in the same column as Trump by comparing them together and calling them terrible men. I'd like to get him in a debate with me.  I have one word for him:  Friedman is Meshugah! 
• What Israel went ahead and did was to pre-empt with their attack.  Israel the USA had already hit Iran's weapon of atomic uranium storage on.  Israel was threatened by Iran,  and that was something part of their Muslim religion, the duty to tell their enemy, so they were believed, along with reports from Mossad of what was going on.     
• The United States and Israel conducted major, coordinated attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, including key uranium enrichment sites, on February 28, 2026. This campaign, often referred to as the start of the 2026 Iran war, followed earlier significant strikes in June 2025, targeting sites like Natanz and Fordow.
• On February 28, 2026, Israel launched a preemptive military strike against Iran to neutralize alleged imminent threats, triggering a nationwide emergency. Defense Minister Israel Katz stated the operation aimed to eliminate immediate dangers to national security, with the US providing support against anticipated Iranian retaliation.
• On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated, large-scale strikes against Iran, targeting military, nuclear, and leadership infrastructure as part of the USA plan of "Operation Epic Fury". The attacks involved airstrikes and missiles targeting command centers and missile facilities, with ongoing engagements reported throughout March and early April 2026. 
• Israel's separate plan was called Operation Roaring Lion.  
• Based on early 2026 reports, Israel’s major military operation against Iran was named "Operation Roaring Lion", sometimes referred to as an "emergency campaign" or a shift from an earlier initiative known as "Operation Rising Lion". From what I can see, it was a pre-empt strike.  They are the most highly threatened country; one hit and splat-there goes 10 million people this time, 4 more than the Nazis managed to kill, and not all would be Jews, either.  20% of Israel's population is a mixed group of Christians, Muslims of sorts,etc.   all happy to be citizens of Israel and helping to fight.  
  
                  Israeli IDF female soldier, maybe Ethiopian
• Being the PM of a country is hard today and ultra hard for an Israeli.  Jews are not followers;  they are leaders, born with the DNA to be leaders.  I know;  I taught English there for 5 years, leaving only to attend to my own son back in the States.  I think my cohorts could all be debaters like my son who went to State with his partner in high school.  I've got to hand it to Netanyahu to stick it out for 16 years and hopefully more to come.  
• Resource:
• edit: 9:00am 4/12/26
• https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/21/middleeast/nuclear-sites-iran-us-bombs-wwk-intl#:~:text=Natanz,/Graphic:%20Thomas%20Bordeaux/CNN
• https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2216309392145440
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLoDBDHz97M
• https://www.ajc.org/IsraelConflictTimeline#:~:text=1967:%20Six%2DDay%20War,geopolitical%20dynamics%20in%20the%20region.
• 
  

 

Criticizing Israel Without knowledge,

 Nadene Goldfoot                                      

This morning's Michael Smerconish's program spotlighted what Thomas Friedman had in his writing about the Iran- Israel -USA war that started.  If there's any Jew against Israel, it's Thomas Friedman, so his opinion of Israel made me scream.  He wrote "From Beirut to Jerusalem" that was published in 1989.  It's the first inkling I've had of his continued misguided opinions about Israel. 

Thomas Loren Friedman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on July 20, 1953, and grew up in the middle-class Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. He is the son of Harold and Margaret Friedman.He's  the author of seven bestselling books, among them From Beirut to Jerusalem and The World Is Flat. During his undergraduate years, he spent semesters abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American University in Cairo, colleges probably as different as ying and yang. 

Thomas Friedman has argued on Smerconish and in his columns that the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran represents one of the most dangerous moments in modern Middle East history. He warns that Iran’s regime is driven by ideology, requiring a strategic, non-superficial response from Israel and the U.S. that avoids a "forever war".

 "From Beirut to Jerusalem" (1989) by Thomas Friedman is widely regarded as a classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning, and insightful, yet pessimistic, account of the Middle East conflict, based on his 10 years as a New York Times reporter. The book is praised for its accessible blend of personal anecdote, history, and analysis, though some critics consider it deeply cynical and, in some cases, Orientalist."  In essence, describing Friedman as an orientalist implies his analysis is not an objective assessment of the region, but rather a "style of thought" that imposes a Western perspective that diminishes the agency and humanity of the people being described. 

 Following his graduation from Brandeis, (Brandeis University is located at 415 South Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, 02453. Situated on a 235-acre campus in the suburbs of Boston, it is a private research university founded in 1948).  In 1948, the year it opened, Brandeis University focused on establishing a foundation for top-tier research, primarily in the humanities and social sciences, while establishing a "pioneering research enterprise" to combat discrimination in higher education. The research environment was shaped by European scholars fleeing war, leading to a cosmopolitan, intellectual, and social justice-oriented academic culture.

Friedman attended St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, on a Marshall Scholarship. In 1978, he received an M.Phil. degree in modern Middle East studies from Oxford. That summer he joined the London Bureau of United Press International (UPI) on Fleet Street, where he worked as a general assignment reporter.

All this education came about in England where anti-Semitism is high.  Since then, he's been against Israel as far as I can see reading and hearing about his opinion from Smerconish's TV program.  

To universities today recommended for Israeli studies are:  

• University of Haifa: Offers specialized International Israel Studies and Master's programs in Jewish thought and history, located in a diverse, immersive setting.
• Yale University: Provides comprehensive undergraduate majors and doctoral studies in Jewish history, culture, and literature.
• Columbia University: The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies covers modern Judaism, ancient studies, and modern Israel.
• What has been going on in these universities is plain anti-Semitism.  
  
  
            Before iran's first revolution 46 years ago when people were more like Americans.  

 I lived in Israel from June 1980 to the end of November1985 and lived in Haifa and then moved to Safed to teach. Our history had captured my interest when 15 and I've spent lots of time educating myself, starting with UR with Abraham doing deep studies.  For once, Israel was not hit while I was there because Iran and Iraq were busy shooting at each other.  My classmates and I were not affected.  

        Trying to rebel and bring down the Ayatollah's regime

Friedman also hasn't kept up with what has been going on in Iran at this time.  There has been a revolution against the Ayatollah regime.  There is reason for the citizens who are not part of the Revolutionary Guard to have been rebelling in the streets without arms, mind you.  The Revolutionary Guard was turned onto them with guns, mowing down at least 35,,000 for starters, now with the number unbelievable.  

Iran has been supplying their henchmen terrorists, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, others, with weapons to use against Israel.  Iran has come out in the open declaring their goal in life is to wipe out Israel. 

Before this regime caused to Shah to run for his life, the Shah and Israel were friends.  The Ayatollahs brought in an Islam foreign to the majority of Iranians that was bent on killing Jews. Iran then fought a war with Iraq. 

 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, fled Iran on January 16, 1979. He departed from Tehran with his family, officially for a "vacation," amid escalating political unrest, massive protests, and the growing momentum of the Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini.

Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, driven by Saddam Hussein’s desire to exploit Iran's post-revolutionary instability, seize control of the oil-rich Khuzestan province, and secure the vital Shatt al-Arab waterway. Hussein aimed to prevent the spread of Iran's Islamic Revolution to Iraq and establish Iraq as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf.

"The Iran-Iraq War lasted almost eight years, starting with the Iraqi invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980, and ending with a UN-brokered ceasefire that became effective on August 20, 1988. The long, deadly conflict was a stalemate, resulting in an estimated 500,000 to over one million deaths."  So, since 1980, Iranians have been under war-conditions, and both sides fought till only teens were left as soldiers.  They about wiped out their male population!  They haven't had any freedom for the past 46 years since the 1980 war. 

An Iranian, Toussi, has been on the web on youtube from England who has his father stuck in Iran.  Toussi has been showing what it's like there with the Rebellion. Tousi was born in 1973, in Portland, Oregon and raised in Tehran, Iran. He emigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1986.  Mahyad Tousi (born 1973) is an Iranian–American filmmaker, scriptwriter, producer and director. He has created/co-created, directed and produced several films and documentaries including Looking For Palladin (2008), Of Kings and Prophets (2016) and United States of Al (2021–22).  He's my hero for not giving up on the Iranians and continue to filming and presenting their case.  

In 2007, along with Reza Aslan, he co-founded BoomGen Studios, an entertainment based company helping contents related to the Middle East.^[2] In 2020, he founded Starfish, an accelerator program industry

 Ayatollah turned off internet.  The country hasn't had water or food because of the lack of water.  Water trucks have been going around like vegetable wagons in Portland did in the 40s in Portland doling out some water.  People already lost jobs.  They have nothing to live for; this the rebellion.  Finally, CNN had a program telling about the Prince helping the Iranian people---for regime change!!!Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last Shah, has advocated for regime change and a democratic transition from exile since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Based in the U.S., he has served as a prominent opposition figure, actively encouraging popular uprisings, urging international support, and aiming to lead a democratic transition to a secular Iran.  No one was picking this information up and most were not trusting what they saw briefly without it coming from a well-known website.  Thank you CNN.  I cried when I saw this finally happened. 

2025: In an unprecedented turn of events, the Iranian regime has been rocked by internal rebellion and external military strikes, leading to an unexpected and dramatic collapse. The once unshakable power structure that has ruled Iran for over 47 years is now crumbling, with the people rising against their oppressors and the regime's foreign allies retreating. 

Has Friedman shown this bit of knowledge?  If I can know about it, what hasn't Friedman?  He and Trump just think they can pick another living Ayatollah and all is fine !!! 

For some time now Israel has been helping the people.  I've been writing about it. 

" Israel has engaged in activities to weaken the Iranian regime, often described as supporting opposition or destabilizing efforts, for decades, with significant proxy conflict dynamics dating back to at least 1985. Support intensified in the 2020s, with reports" detailing Mossad and CIA support for Iranian Kurdish militia groups and direct attacks on military targets to aid potential rebellions. I don't even think Toussi knew about this. 

 Resource:

Edit: 4/4/26 at 5;50pm

Tousi

Smerconish TV Program

Thomas Friedman

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2025/06/thomas-friedman-newspaper-reporter.html