[lg policy] Hypocrisy Alert: Trump Administration Blasts Mahmoud Abbas for Using Foul Language

[Harold Schiffman]

 Opinion Hypocrisy Alert: Trump Administration Blasts Mahmoud Abbas for
Using Foul Language

Ambassador Friedman should not be called a 'Son of a Dog' but he embodies
U.S.-Israeli efforts to humiliate the Palestinians into submission
Chemi Shalev <https://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/1.4968908> Mar 20, 2018
2:17 PM
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[image: 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.] 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.
Bloomberg

   - Forget 'son of a dog' – Abbas' speech was disconcerting for an
   entirely different reason
   <https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-forget-son-of-a-dog-abbas-speech-was-troubling-for-another-reason-1.5930288>
   - Abbas assails U.S. Ambassador David Friedman: 'Son of a dog, settler'
   <https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/abbas-assails-u-s-ambassador-david-friedman-son-of-a-bitch-settler-1.5917897>
   - White House to Abbas: Time to choose between hateful rhetoric and
   peace efforts
   <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>

The Trump administration’s strenuous protests against the “son of a dog
<https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/abbas-assails-u-s-ambassador-david-friedman-son-of-a-bitch-settler-1.5917897>”
cuss-word
<https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-forget-son-of-a-dog-abbas-speech-was-troubling-for-another-reason-1.5930288>
that Mahmoud Abbas
<https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/mahmoud-abbas-1.5599088> used to
describe Ambassador David Friedman
<https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/david-friedman-1.5606878> are a classic
case of the pot calling the kettle black.

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.

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 anti-Semitic
<https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-trumps-plan-for-mideast-peace-do-the-opposite-of-what-obama-did-1.5472736>,
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 Palestinian
Authority
<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>.


*>> Forget 'son of a dog' – Abbas' speech was disconcerting for an entirely
different reason
<https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-forget-son-of-a-dog-abbas-speech-was-troubling-for-another-reason-1.5930288>
|
Analysis >>*

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.
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Email*

<https://www.haaretz.com/misc/newsletters-page>

Together with Jason Greenblatt
<https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-a-secret-message-for-jason-greenblatt-trump-s-mideast-envoy-1.5626927>
and Jared Kushner
<https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/jared-kushner-1.5606881>, Friedman
belongs to an American peace team that is exclusively comprised of Orthodox
Jews with a proven penchant for Benjamin Netanyahu
<https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/benjamin-netanyahu-1.5599046> and his
policies.

Political correctness has minimized public discussion of this blatant
common ground, but one can only imagine the maelstrom that would have
broken out if Barack Obama
<https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/barack-obama-1.5599045>, 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.

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 Jerusalem
<http://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/jerusalem-1.5598985>, 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.

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.

*>> Delve deeper into the week's news: Sign up to Chemi Shalev's weekly
roundup
<https://www.haaretz.com/misc/newsletters-page/chemi-shalev-newsletter>*

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.

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.

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.


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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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