Responding to NYT op-ed criticizing Israel, US Ambassador says Arabs ‘can’t do better’ than living in Jewish state

US Ambassador David Friedman responds to an op-ed in The New York Times criticizing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, saying that an “Arab in the Middle East who is gay, a woman a Christian or seeking education and self improvement can’t do better than living in (the Jewish state).”

In her op-ed published on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, civil rights activists Michelle Alexander writes, “If we are to honor King’s message and not merely the man, we must condemn Israel’s actions: unrelenting violations of international law, continued occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, home demolitions and land confiscations. We must cry out at the treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the routine searches of their homes and restrictions on their movements, and the severely limited access to decent housing, schools, food, hospitals and water that many of them face.”

Michelle Alexander has it all wrong in today’s @NYT. If MLK were alive today I think he would be very proud of his robust support for the State of Israel. An Arab in the ME who is gay, a woman, a Christian, or seeking education & self-improvement can’t do better than living in ????????

— Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Stephanie Hallett (@USAmbIsrael) January 20, 2019