Thomas Friedman

I know people who get so annoyed with the columns of Thomas Friedman on the Middle East. I really don't. I mean, what else do you want from somebody whose knowledge you don't respect, and who is willing to expose himself--so to say--in public regularly? Look at the silly column today: it is rather staggering how little he knows about the region. First notice that he has no knowledge whatsoever of the controversies and criticisms that surrounded the release of the Arab Human Development Report. Secondly, the writes a long tribute to Salam Fayyad but does not even know (I would have said that he should have told the readers but he does not know to tell the readers) how unpopular Fayyad is among the Palestinians. So his entire shtick about Fayyadism is meaningless becasue the Palestinians have made up their minds about him. This is a man who gets 1% support in polls and elections--kid you not. And then he said: "Fayyad, famous here for his incorruptibility." Well, Fayyad may not be personally corrupt but he is part of a regime that is most corrupt, and politically he is aligned with none other than...MUHAMMAD DAHLAN. This is like saying that somebody is a man of virtune although he/she is poitically aligned with Prince Bandar. (thanks Sameer)