Tom Friedman's column in today's NYT is probably meant to be a warning to US politicians not to speak evil of their opponents, to me it is confirmation of bigotry in Israeli society, which Jews usually denounce as antisemitism if anyone dares speak it aloud. As a Jew, Tom Friedman may come under more criticism than a gentile, but he has been an objective newsman in both the Israeli and the Arab world before returning to the US. Discussing the film, "Rabin: The Last Day," the director said Rabin's murder "came at the end of a hate campaign" that included "the parliamentary right, led by the Likud (party), already then headed by Benjamin Netanyahu."
Friedman says this film is a warning to American Republican candidates who are stirring up similiar hate-filled emotions in the US. He is right that hate is not a good basis for a campaign, But if something is an issue, you should not refuse to talk about it just because you might hurt homebody's feelings, but there is no need to threaten or encourage violence. I don't think either Trump or Carson has done that.
The US has not descended to the level that Israel reached at the time of Rabin, as described in the film. Israelis should remember that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Let them work out their own political problems with their Muslim neighbors and then lecture us on how to deal with our own political system.
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