Tom Friedman, Joe Klein Write: Use Israel Aid As Leverage

In his column on Sunday, Thomas Friedman indicated, in rather strong terms, that he's had it with both Israelis and Palestinians.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu won't freeze settlements; President Mahmoud Abbas says he won't return to negotiations.  So Friedman says we should turn our backs on them both. 

"If the status quo is this tolerable for the parties, then I say, let them enjoy it. I just don't want to subsidize it or anesthetize it anymore. We need to fix America. If and when they get serious, they'll find us. And when they do, we should put a detailed U.S. plan for a two-state solution, with borders, on the table," he writes.

"Indeed, it's time for us to dust off James Baker's line: 'When you're serious, give us a call: 202-456-1414. Ask for Barack. Otherwise, stay out of our lives. We have our own country to fix.'"

Some kind of Rubicon has been crossed when Tom Friedman writes that he no longer wants to "subsidize" Israel, which is America's largest foreign aid recipient, by far. 

TIME's Joe Klein leaves no doubt about where he stands on the aid question.  He writes that if Netanyahu continues to ignore the President's request for a settlement freeze, Obama "should start by  putting a hold on all economic and military aid to Israel; the aid should not be discontinued, just held, for a nice long review until the Netanyahu government comes to understand that Jerusalem must be the capital of both Israel and Palestine, and that if you actually want peace, you don't build illegal settlement colonies in the Palestinian capital."

This is pretty incredible.  Friedman and Klein are both Jews and both long-time supporters of Israel.  But now they are suggesting using our Israel aid package as leverage to get Israel to start living up to its commitments under the Roadmaps, UN Resolutions 242 and 338, and commitments made to successive US Presidents. 

A few years ago, the mere suggestion that aid be used to extract concessions from Israel would have been considered a crackpot idea.  Now it's coming from the heart of the media/foreign policy establishment.  Times are changing and the Israeli government had better pay attention.