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Thomas Friedman

This Month

China’s advanced manufacturing muscles have exploded in size, sophistication and quantity.

China’s staggering manufacturing muscle needs to be seen to be believed

Since Trump was last in office, Beijing has doubled down on its efforts to gain global supremacy in electric cars, robots and rare materials. America could be toast if it doesn’t respond.

November

David Rowe's cartoon of Donald Trump with the Statue of Liberty went viral.

Three giant challenges that will define Trump’s second term

The president-elect faces some huge shifting tectonic plates that have profound implications for the US administration and the world.

October

Today is a start. What happens next in the Middle East is everything

US and leaders in the Middle East including the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia have discussed a plan for the day after the war ends. But will Netanyahu go along?

August

Iran buries Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and swears revenge.

Iran is playing a dangerous game

There are plenty of reasons to be suspicious of Benjamin Netanyahu’s motives. But Tehran has an even uglier strategy to disrupt the Middle East.

July

Donald Trump and Joe Biden debating at CNN’s Atlanta studios.

Both men running for US president are unfit for the job

One is a good man in obvious cognitive and physical decline, and the other is a bad man who lies as he breathes – and who is in his own cognitive tailspin.

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June

Biden is a good man and my friend, but he must bow out

We are at the start of the biggest disruptions in human history, so if there was ever a time the world needs America at its best, it is now.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Cabinet meeting at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem this month.

Israel needs to get the hell out of Gaza

The extremists in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government have led a reckless act of economic, military and moral overstretch.

May

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at an encampment at Columbia University on April 22.

Why the campus protests are so troubling

Hamas is against the existence of a Jewish state and believes there should be an Islamic state between the river and the sea. When protests on college campuses ignore that, they are part of the problem.

April

Israel has a fateful choice to make: Rafah or Riyadh?

If Israel ends up with an indefinite occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank, it would be a toxic military, economic and moral overstretch that would delight Iran.

March

Palestinians pass the remains of buildings following the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Hamad City, west of Khan Younis, Gaza.

Things have gone terribly wrong in Gaza. They could get worse soon

There is only one thing worse for Israel, not to mention Palestinians, than a Gaza controlled by Hamas: That’s a Gaza where nobody is in charge.

February

Internet trolls have turned on presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

Donald Trump’s party has become a cult with no coherent platform

The Republican Party has become a cult with no coherent platform other than what side of the bed their likely presidential candidate woke up on.

America’s approach to Iran, a Palestinian state and Saudi Arabia are at the heart of a possible strategic realignment in the Middle East.

The Biden Doctrine: biggest Middle East shift in 45 years is coming

America’s approach to Iran, a Palestinian state and Saudi Arabia are at the heart of a possible strategic realignment.

January

From left: Joe Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin are all facing elections this year.

A titanic geopolitical struggle is underway

While the two battlefronts – Russia v Ukraine and Israel v Hamas – may look very different, they actually have a lot in common.

In Tel Aviv on January 20, a protester wears a shirt depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempt during a demonstration demanding the release of the hostages in Gaza.

Why Netanyahu is turning against Biden

Israel has been at war with Hamas for more than 100 days and still has more than 100 hostages to recover, but Netanyahu’s No. 1 focus is Netanyahu.

The UAE leadership has converted its intensely hot promontory on the Persian Gulf into one of the world’s most prosperous crossroads for trade, tourism, transport, innovation, shipping and golf.

Hamas could have built its own Dubai. It chose war with Israel

Not only would the world have lined up to aid and invest in it, it would have been the most powerful springboard conceivable for a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

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December 2023

The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has continued after a Security Council resolution stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.

It’s time to turn the tables in the war with Hamas

From the start of this war, there has been an asymmetry: Israel has to answer every day for its mistakes and excesses. Hamas has never had to. Time to turn the tables.

Israeli soldiers in a tunnel in Gaza.

What worries me about the Gaza war after my trip to Arab states

No Gulf Arab state will come into Gaza with bags of money to rebuild it unless Israel has a legitimate Palestinian partner and commits to a two-state solution.

Israeli soldiers stand on tanks and armoured vehicles near the southern border with the Gaza Strip.

Why Israel should call for a permanent ceasefire

Wiping out Hamas is an unattainable goal, and getting stuck in Gaza would be a disaster.

November 2023

of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, during the funeral of the Israeli man Sagiv Ben Svi, killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival.

Three reasons Israel is in real danger

It is crystal clear to me that Israel is in real peril – more so than at any time since its war of independence in 1948.

Palestinians search for survivors following an Israeli airstrike in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

The growing case for restraint against Hamas

Israel needs to know the tolerance of its American ally for massive civilian casualties in Gaza in an open-ended military operation is not unlimited.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/thomas-friedman-p4yvm1