Will David Friedman Apologize For Calling Liberal Jews ‘Kapos’?

David Friedman Image by Nikki Casey

By Naomi Zeveloff February 15, 2017

President Trump’s pick for Israel envoy, David Friedman, is expected to apologize for calling liberal American Jews “worse than kapos” at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, the New York Times reported.

Friedman doubled down on the disparaging comments about supporters of J Street, the dovish Israel lobby, in an op-ed last year on the pro-settler Israeli news site Arutz Sheva, in which he also accused then-President Obama of anti-Semitism.

The New York Times said that representatives of Friedman told Maryland Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as other officials, that Friedman would say he regretted the “kapos” comment at his hearing.

Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who opposes the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, is a settlement supporter through his position as the head of American Friends of Beit El Institutions, which brings in about $2 million a year for the settlement near Ramallah, according to Haaretz.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com

Naomi Zeveloff is the former Middle East correspondent of the Forward, primarily covering Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

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