WASHINGTON — David Friedman at the launch of US Senate hearings to confirm him as ambassador to Israel said there was “no excuse” for his past rhetoric targeting liberal Jews.
In his opening remarks, Friedman said his attacks were “partisan rhetoric” during a heated presidential election campaign. Friedman is Trump’s longtime lawyer and was a key surrogate to the Jewish community during the campaign.
He called the liberal Middle East policy group J Street “kapos” and the ADL “morons.” He also likened Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister who appeased Adolf Hitler.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking member of the Foreign Relations committee, which must approve Friedman to advance his nomination to the full Senate, said the terms seemed to go beyond partisan rhetoric.
Cardin said he and Friedman had in common that “our parents were proud Zionists who worked and did everything they could in support for the State of Israel.” But noting his father was the president of a synagogue — Friedman’s was a rabbi — Cardin added, “My father taught me to respect different views.”
The Maryland lawmaker also noted that some of Friedman’s statements — particularly his attack on Schumer, made during the heat of the battle over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — came before the campaign and in many cases were written comments.
“I’m having difficulty understanding your use of those descriptions and whether you really can be a diplomat,” Cardin said.
Friedman appeared chastened.
“I provided some context for my remarks, but that was not in the nature of an excuse,” he said. “These were hurtful words and I deeply regret them. They’re not reflective of my nature and character.”
Cardin also pressed Friedman about past statements that appeared to oppose a two-state solution addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and noted his backing for settlements, including some deep inside the West Bank.
Friedman replied that he had been skeptical of a two-state solution, but would welcome any solution arrived at by the Israelis and Palestinians that ended suffering for both peoples.
Protesters interrupted the hearings at least three times, including by a contingent from the Jewish protest group If Not Now who sang as they were ejected “Olam Chesed Yibaneh,” “Build a world of kindness.”
Five former US ambassadors to Israel who served under both Democratic and Republican presidents said that Friedman is “unqualified for the position.”
In a letter sent Feb. 15 to the Senate Foreign Relations committee, which begins confirmation hearings for David Friedman on Feb. 16, the former ambassadors said that he has staked out “extreme, radical positions” and has derided the two-state solution as an “illusory” fix for a nonexistent problem.
The letter urged the committee to “satisfy itself that Mr. Friedman has the balance and the temperament required to represent the US as ambassador to Israel.”
Its signers — Thomas Pickering, William Harrop, Edward Walker, Daniel Kurtzer and James Cunningham — said they “care deeply about Israel: an American ally, a stronghold of democracy in the Middle East and homeland for the Jewish people.”
The letter was posted on Twitter by a reporter for Haaretz.
“The American ambassador must be dedicated to advancing our country’s longstanding bipartisan goals in the region: strengthening the security of the US and our ally Israel, and advancing the prospects for peace between Israel and its neighbors, in particular the Palestinians.
“If Israel is to carry on as a democratic, Jewish nation, respected internationally, we see no alternative to a two-state solution,” they wrote.
The letter noted that Friedman rejects a two-state solution and has been “active in supporting and financing the settler movement.”
Friedman, who owns an apartment in Jewish Jerusalem’s Talbiya neighborhood, speaks Hebrew and is president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions.
Several liberal Jewish organizations and their supporters are protesting the nomination.
The groups organized three separate letters this week to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: one each from over 600 rabbis and cantors, from Holocaust survivors and from Holocaust scholars, protesting the nomination and focusing on Friedman’s use of the term kapo.
Friedman’s supporters include the Zionist Organization of America, the OU and Christians United for Israel.
On Feb. 15, the ZOA urged the Senate to confirm Friedman, saying his views “reflect widely held views of the American public at large, the Jewish-American public, Congress and our major American political parties.”
It referred to J Street as a “radical, extremist” group, and praised Friedman’s “realistic and flexible approach to achieving peace, his view that there are a variety of potential approaches, and his view that the US should not impose solutions on the parties.”
Also on Feb. 15, Christians United for Israel ran a full-page advertisement in the Capitol Hill daily, The Hill, in support of his confirmation. The OU sent a letter of support to the Senate committee.
