President-elect Donald Trump tapped bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman to serve as the US ambassador to Israel on Thursday, raising questions about how Friedman’s far-right views will upend Washington’s longstanding approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Friedman, who has no diplomatic experience, is a fierce opponent of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine that would create two independent states on either side of the Jordan river.
He has compared members of J-Street — a left-leaning advocacy group that supports a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict primarily via a two-state solution — to “kapos,” Jews who cooperated with the Nazis during the Holocaust.
“The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty,” Friedman wrote in June for Israeli media organisation Arutz Sheva. “But J Street? They are just smug advocates of Israel’s destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas — it’s hard to imagine anyone worse.”
Friedman has also not opposed Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank — a practice that has been the source of significant tension between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Read the full article by Natasha Bertrand at Business Insider Australia.