David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel during the first Trump administration, told Newsmax on Friday that the criticism lobbed at Israel over its pager attack on Hezbollah terrorists "doesn't make any sense."
In an interview with "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE," Friedman said it's curious that Israel can't escape criticism from Americans like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., no matter the manner in which they defend themselves against terrorism.
"I don't get it, because the criticism had been historically, I think an unfair criticism, had been that Israel is killing too many civilians when it's killing terrorists, which I don't agree with but that's been the criticism," Friedman told Higbie. "Now they have a plan in place, right? This brilliant plan going after pagers, you know. [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah thought that the pagers would be safe because they're low technology."
The pager attacks killed at least 32 and injured another 3,000 since Tuesday afternoon, many of which have been Hezbollah terrorists.
"These pagers were given out specifically and only to Hezbollah terrorists. And Israel goes after them. And so you can't get more targeted. You can't have an operation which is more targeted to the terrorists and away from the civilians. And they're still blaming Israel. It doesn't make any sense," Friedman added.
Then on Friday, Israel killed top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, who orchestrated the bombing deaths of hundreds of U.S. Marines and embassy personnel in Beirut in 1983. Aqil had a $7 million bounty on his head from the United States. So, naturally, people in Dearborn, Michigan, are set to hold a Friday night vigil — for the terrorists.
"Yeah, it's despicable. So just put that in context: Dearborn, Michigan, is mourning … the assassination of a man who killed over 200 American Marines in Beirut and another 63 members of the American embassy," Friedman said. "Look, these are the same people who gave out candies on 9/11. I mean, we know who these people are. …
"These are people that are not with America. They're with America's enemies."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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