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<span class="gmail-t-kicker gmail-t-alpha">Opinion </span> <h1 id="gmail-art-headline" class="gmail-t-headline--em gmail-h-mb--xxtight">Hypocrisy Alert: Trump Administration Blasts Mahmoud Abbas for Using Foul Language </h1>
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Ambassador Friedman should not be called a 'Son of a Dog' but he
embodies U.S.-Israeli efforts to humiliate the Palestinians into
submission
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<address><a rel="author" href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/1.4968908"><span>Chemi Shalev</span></a></address> <time datetime="Tue Mar 20 14:17:13 IST 2018">Mar 20, 2018 2:17 PM</time>
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<figcaption class="gmail-fig__caption"><span>U.S.
President Donald Trump listens while Mahmoud Abbas, president of
Palestine, speaks during a joint press conference in theWhite House in
Washington, D.C., U.S., May 3, 2017.</span><span class="gmail-fig__credit">Bloomberg</span></figcaption>
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<h3 class="gmail-t-epsilon">
<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-forget-son-of-a-dog-abbas-speech-was-troubling-for-another-reason-1.5930288" class="gmail-t-txt-link">
Forget 'son of a dog' – Abbas' speech
was disconcerting for an entirely different reason
</a>
</h3>
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<h3 class="gmail-t-epsilon">
<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/abbas-assails-u-s-ambassador-david-friedman-son-of-a-bitch-settler-1.5917897" class="gmail-t-txt-link">
Abbas assails U.S. Ambassador David
Friedman: 'Son of a dog, settler'
</a>
</h3>
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<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/white-house-responds-to-abbas-time-for-come-to-choose-between-hateful-rhetoric-and-peace-efforts-1.5918156" class="gmail-t-txt-link">
White House to Abbas: Time to choose
between hateful rhetoric and peace efforts
</a>
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<p class="gmail-t-body-text">The Trump administration’s strenuous protests against the “<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/abbas-assails-u-s-ambassador-david-friedman-son-of-a-bitch-settler-1.5917897">son of a dog</a>” <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-forget-son-of-a-dog-abbas-speech-was-troubling-for-another-reason-1.5930288">cuss-word</a> that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/mahmoud-abbas-1.5599088">Mahmoud Abbas</a> used to describe Ambassador <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/david-friedman-1.5606878">David Friedman</a> are a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
</p>
<p class="gmail-t-body-text">Representatives
of a U.S. president who won’t control his mouth, who has turned gutter
talk into official White House parlance, who uses personal insults as a
political weapon of choice and who only recently called NBC’s Chuck Todd
a “sleepy-eyed son of a bitch” – are outraged by Abu Mazen’s foul
language and lack of decorum. In the race for the height of hypocrisy,
America is clearly ahead.
</p>
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<p class="gmail-t-body-text">Even
though Abbas’ expletive was indeed reprehensible, Friedman is the last
one who can complain. Before he was appointed as envoy, Friedman wrote
that Barack Obama was <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-trumps-plan-for-mideast-peace-do-the-opposite-of-what-obama-did-1.5472736">anti-Semitic</a>,
that J-Street followers are worse than kapos and that Mahmoud Abbas is a
liar and crook. Since taking up office, Friedman has moderated his
personal smears but often serves as a mouthpiece for Jewish settlers and
as the fiercest critic, as if it was actually part of his job, of Abbas
and the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/white-house-responds-to-abbas-time-for-come-to-choose-between-hateful-rhetoric-and-peace-efforts-1.5918156">Palestinian Authority</a>.
</p>
<p class="gmail-t-body-text gmail-fi_smart_docked"><strong>>> <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-forget-son-of-a-dog-abbas-speech-was-troubling-for-another-reason-1.5930288">Forget 'son of a dog' – Abbas' speech was disconcerting for an entirely different reason</a> | Analysis >></strong>
</p>
<p class="gmail-t-body-text">The
very appointment of a U.S. Ambassador who publicly identifies with the
messianic wing of the Jewish right could only be possible in the strange
days of Donald Trump, in which ludicrous seems to be the ideal.
</p>
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<p class="gmail-t-body-text">Together with <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-a-secret-message-for-jason-greenblatt-trump-s-mideast-envoy-1.5626927">Jason Greenblatt</a> and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/jared-kushner-1.5606881">Jared Kushner</a>, Friedman belongs to an American peace team that is exclusively comprised of Orthodox Jews with a proven penchant for <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/benjamin-netanyahu-1.5599046">Benjamin Netanyahu</a> and his policies.
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<p class="gmail-t-body-text">Political
correctness has minimized public discussion of this blatant common
ground, but one can only imagine the maelstrom that would have broken
out if <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/barack-obama-1.5599045">Barack Obama</a>,
for example, had appointed Palestinian professor Rashid Khalidi as his
ambassador in Tel Aviv and American-Arabs such as former envoy George
Mitchell and former Governor John Sununu to his peace team. “Son of a
dog” wouldn’t even rate as an appetizer.
</p>
<div id="gmail-FIOnDemandWrapper_fiInstance_107459_0_2416154" class="gmail-FIOnDemandWrapper" style="margin:10px auto 40px;float:none;clear:both"><div class="gmail-apd_static_banner gmail-ad--b" style="margin:0px auto;height:250px;width:300px"><ins class="gmail-adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px"><ins id="gmail-aswift_3_expand" style="display:inline-table;border:medium none;height:250px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:300px;background-color:transparent"><ins id="gmail-aswift_3_anchor" style="display:block;border:medium none;height:250px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:300px;background-color:transparent"></ins></ins></ins></div></div><p class="gmail-t-body-text">Friedman
is at the cutting edge of coordinated U.S.-Israeli policy that seeks to
subdue the Palestinians and master them. Trump’s unilateral recognition
of <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/jerusalem-1.5598985">Jerusalem</a>,
the transfer of the U.S. Embassy there and his insistence that
“Jerusalem is now off the table” may have been greeted in Israel as a
sign of redemption or, at the very least, recognition of existing
reality, but Palestinians viewed these moves as an American attempt to
humiliate them and dictate terms.
</p>
<p class="gmail-t-body-text">Any
last doubts they may have harbored about Trump’s ultimate intentions
were removed by Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer, who have
stated in recent days that U.S. policy is “shock treatment”, meant to
bring Abbas and the Palestinians down to what passes on their own rigid
right as reality.
</p>
<p class="gmail-t-body-text"><em style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,"Trebuchet MS";font-size:13px"><strong><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/newsletters-page/chemi-shalev-newsletter">>> Delve deeper into the week's news: Sign up to Chemi Shalev's weekly roundup</a></strong></em>
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<p class="gmail-t-body-text">It’s
not surprising that Friedman was the first to draw the anti-Semitism
card, as if he was suddenly no longer the embodiment of an
administration that Palestinians view as hostile but just another
helpless Jew, persecuted for his beliefs and appearance. After all,
Friedman and others of his ilk are at the forefront of the right-wing
campaign to equate any criticism of Israel or its policies with hatred
of Jews.
</p>
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<p class="gmail-t-body-text">He
frequently lambasts incitement in Palestinian schools or their leaders’
refusal to denounce terror, but never actually mentions the occupation,
which, based on his previous statements, doesn’t even exist, as far as
he’s concerned.
</p>
<p class="gmail-t-body-text">Friedman
represents the policies pursued by the Trump administration and the
GOP – influenced and supported by Netanyahu and some of Trump’s
ultra-right backers – that sideline Abbas’ willingness to negotiate and
fight terror to focus instead on his missteps and deficiencies. He is
being set up as an arch-terrorist in the eyes of the world but as an
empty vessel in the eyes of his own people. And when the Palestinian
leader loses it for a minute and uses a common Arabic epithet,
Netanyahu, Friedman and all the other Trump aficionados don’t even blush
when they argue that it proves that Abbas is unworthy.
</p>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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