We are sock puppets.
Zehava Galon
The coupling between the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government has created some iconic, unforgettable pictures. But none can compete with the messianic radiance on the face of the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, when he was breaking down a fake wall with a sledgehammer in the tunnels under Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood.
That picture was more powerful than a thousand conferences in Bahrain. I’ve met tourists who’ve come down with Jerusalem Syndrome; they weren’t dangerous, but no one thought to make them an ambassador.
In response to the criticism, Friedman tweeted: “Fake News: ‘Friedman uses sledgehammer to destroy wall under Palestinian homes.’ Real News: ‘Friedman uses sledgehammer to break ceremonial cardboard wall to open once-in-a-century archeological discovery.’”
With someone else, a cardboard wall with photographers waiting behind it would have raised suspicions that this path had been opened before – but not with Friedman. Maybe he didn’t know that the place had already been inaugurated a year ago, and maybe it wasn’t important to him.
In any case, this engineered picture, planned down to the last detail, is the problem. The sledgehammer that Friedman hoisted didn’t blaze a path to any archaeological discovery, it just hammered another nail into the coffin of Donald Trump’s “deal of the century.”
The small hammer ceremony was only meant to produce a ridiculous video, and it’s another small gamble with the blood of the people who live here. But the U.S. administration doesn’t think that way. In an interview with the Walla news website, U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt said: “Not dealing with history, or in some cases falsifying history, has never helped the peace process.” This was for peace, idiots…
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