Biden backer and NYT columnist admits Trump could be historic president with a Middle East deal

Liberal New York Times scribe and one of President Biden’s closest media allies, Thomas Friedman, admitted in a new column that President-elect Donald Trump has an opportunity to go down in history for his Middle East policy.

In the column published Tuesday, Friedman wrote that Trump’s term could have major consequences for the region, especially regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and noted that the president-elect could broker a deal to “birth a Palestinian state.”

“Say what you will about Trump (and there is a lot to say), but he’s drawn to striking big deals that can have profound and even history-shaping consequences,” Friedman wrote, adding, “There is enormous opportunity and appetite for a game-changing deal — if Trump wants to reach for it and only if he does it right.”

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Friedman expressed hope that his soon-to-be successor will pursue a path to peace between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

He stated, “Trump was the rare American president who actually put out a detailed plan for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. If Trump revives that initiative in 2025, he could be remembered as the president who preserved Israel as a Jewish democracy and helped to securely birth a Palestinian state alongside it.”

Friedman admitted he’s still cautious about whether Trump will pursue that path or not, worrying about Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. But he seemed hopeful that Trump would pursue constructive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, judging by the Middle East policies of his first term.

“Trump has a starting point: the plan for a two-state solution that he put out in January 2020, titled ‘Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People’… the ‘vision’ in the title of Trump’s plan is a kick-starter for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations post-Gaza.”

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Iranian demonstrators burn a representation of the Israeli flag in an annual rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, marking the 45th anniversary of Iranian students’ takeover of the embassy, starting a hostage crisis. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The columnist added, “It’s still the only detailed peace map that any president has publicly presented to create two states since the Clinton parameters, set out by [President] Clinton 24 years ago.”

Friedman noted that Trump’s proposals would have to be altered following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, but stated they have “all the key ingredients to start talks.”

“The plan tells both sides that the only stable solution has to involve two states for two indigenous peoples — with land swaps and mutually agreed-upon security arrangements that they would negotiate.”

The columnist suggested that achieving such a deal would make the former president’s Abraham Accords appear to be a “consolation prize” by comparison and urged Trump to “consider taking advantage of this second chance that history is affording him by inviting both sides to Camp David for a peace summit.”

President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump. (Getty Images)

He advised that the Trump administration make the “buy-in” to attend the summit “being the acceptance of the Trump plan as the floor for negotiations — not the ceiling but the floor — and they can negotiate from there.”

Though he called Biden a “good man who stuck his neck out to arm and diplomatically support Israel after Hamas launched its murderous attack on Oct. 7,” he slammed the president for not having “put out to the world the comprehensive peace plan he was working on behind the scenes” for the region that has resulted in Israel being “more globally isolated” than ever before.

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