Tom Friedman: Will Israel's War Ever End?

New York Times

29-05-2025

The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has spent decades covering Israel and the Middle East. For this episode of 'The Opinions,' the deputy editor of Opinion, Patrick Healy, speaks to Friedman about his latest trip to the region, what he envisions for the future of Israel and how the ongoing conflict in Gaza is going to affect the country.
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The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Patrick Healy: The war shows no signs of slowing down, and you write about how anger toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is growing, including within his own party.
I want to start with your trip. What was the biggest difference you noticed in Israel compared with your last trip to the country, last fall?
Tom Friedman: I'll start from the very first morning I was there.
I had scheduled a breakfast with Yair Golan, the head of the Democrats party, basically the mainstream liberal party in Israel today. We had talked about a range of things, but after breakfast, as we were walking out of the hotel, I could see his phone was blowing up, and I didn't know what it was about. They explained to me that he'd given an interview, I think the evening before with Israel Radio, in which he decried this war with no end and with no plan, where so many Palestinian civilians were being killed. And he said that Palestinian children were being killed as a hobby and absolutely condemned that.
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