Before delving into Friedman, let me begin with Greg Sargents article from yesterday regarding Democrats getting ready to abandon Obama on Iran:
Senate Dems close in on Iran sanctions bill
It looks increasingly likely that any day now, Senate Dems will roll out a new proposal to impose new sanctions on Iran — in defiance of the White House’s request that they hold off, for fear that it will undermine the possibility of a long term deal curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
That means the pressure will now redouble on Harry Reid, who is caught between those in his conference who want sanctions action, and the administration, which doesn’t. The Senate Majority Leader had temporarily deferred the decision on sanctions over to the Committee. Now that it is unlikely to act, it will fall to Reid to decide whether the Menendez-Kirk bill gets a full vote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Now Greg Sargent, unlike most of the left, has been doing excellent reporting on the Democratic revolt against the administration, but even he hasn't gotten to the nub of the matter, In his many pieces on these developments, he has yet to use the word AIPAC or Israel Lobby, cause I guess there's some taboo in mentioning the elephant staring you straight in the face. This also applies to Chris Hayes, who has also done great reporting on this issue, but has asked quizzically why Democrats would abandon that WH without ever bringing up the Israel Lobby.
Now this brings me to Tom Friedmans excellent column from 2 weeks ago on the Iran deal that I just read, which, compared to the rest of the media, had breathtaking honesty and clarity.
The key paragraph:
Never have I seen Israel and America’s core Arab allies working more in concert to stymie a major foreign policy initiative of a sitting U.S. president, and never have I seen more lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — more willing to take Israel’s side against their own president’s. I’m certain this comes less from any careful consideration of the facts and more from a growing tendency by many American lawmakers to do whatever the Israel lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign donations.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
I'm what you would call a liberal Tom Friedman basher, mainly cause he's an avatar of the "centrist" Simpson-Bowles clap trap thats done so much to damage our domestic debate. So for a guy with that much "establishment cred" to sound like Mondoweiss is impressive, and dare I say it, courageous.
For that reason, I tip my hat and give him 3 cheers for calling a spade and spade, and putting the liberals that routinely bash him(for good reason) to shame.