Former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman will be releasing his new memoir, “Sledgehammer: How Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East,” next week, a memoir that Breitbart News is calling “explosive.”
In the book, Friedman reveals some of the opposition he faced from within the U.S. administration to the changes he was attempting to implement, especially the decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city as Israel’s capital.
Former President Trump made his first trip to Israel in 2017 and Friedman wanted the visit to coincide with a formal recognition of Jerusalem. Stymied by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who, he alleged, would not even take his phone calls, Friedman arranged for Trump to be taken straight to the Western Wall upon his arrival in the country.
“Word of my stubborn insistence on standing with our ally Israel had now circulated widely within the State Department,” Friedman writes in his memoir. “Another senior staffer decided to call me and offer the following advice: ‘Mr. Ambassador, don’t be so Jewish.’
“’What?’
“’Don’t be so Jewish. You represent the United States of America. Tone down the Judaism in your work.’”
Friedman notes that he was “furious” and attacked back, demanding to know, “Why do the laws of political correctness not apply to Jews?”
According to Breitbart, “Friedman’s religion was an asset, not a burden, as he used the Biblical figure of Abraham — a founding father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike — to cement the Israeli-Arab peace agreements known as the Abraham Accords.”