LOS ANGELES — New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said this week that efforts to prevent him from addressing an Anti-Defamation League function were “not about my views, but whether certain elements can tell us what to think and who has the right to talk.”
“I can take care of myself,” Friedman told the 1,500 ADL supporters attending Sunday’s dinner here. “But what about you? Your Jewish newspaper? Your organization?”
Friedman’s appearance came after a two-week fracas, marked by harsh exchanges between two national Jewish organizations, before escalating to involve Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
The controversy surrounding the Jewish columnist, who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his Middle East reporting, began when the ADL invited Friedman to speak at its regional dinner in Los Angeles.
The invitation drew sharp criticism from Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, who accused Friedman of a long record of anti-Israel statements. Klein asked the ADL to cancel the appearance.
Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director, rejected the request and upbraided Klein.
After the war of words, a committee of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations issued a statement Tuesday regretting that a dispute between heads of the ADL and ZOA had “escalated into public exchanges” that hurt “the interests of the Jewish community.” The committee, and Klein, welcomed an apology by Foxman.
The controversy went international when Netanyahu’s communications aide, David Bar-Illan, joined the fray by telling a reporter that Friedman was an “anti-Zionist” and should not be given a platform by an American pro-Israel organization.
Bar-Illan drew immediate criticism in the Israeli media and apparently from his boss as well.
So Bar-Illan, who as editor of the Jerusalem Post had frequently criticized Friedman, telephoned the journalist. It was the first time the two had ever talked directly.
Bar-Illan said that in labeling Friedman an anti-Zionist and suggesting that his ADL speech be canceled, he had spoken as a private person, not as Netanyahu’s close adviser.
The prime minister, he added, did not feel that “the Israeli government has a right to express an opinion about such matters.”
Friedman, in turn, insisted that Bar-Illan put the statement into writing, on the stationery of the Prime Minister’s Office, and send it to the ADL and to the Forward, the newspaper that had first reported Bar-Illan’s criticism. Bar-Illan sent the letter but did not apologize to Friedman for the original attack.
Addressing Sunday’s dinner, Friedman praised Netanyahu’s intervention as “the decent thing to do” and said he accepted the prime minister’s “complete disassociation from attempts to shut down this dinner.” Friedman also praised the ADL for resisting the pressure to cancel his appearance.