Lieberman: Trump’s Israel envoy pick will soften hard line

by Mike Lillis - 12/22/16 3:48 PM ET

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman says President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel will likely temper his most contentious views during the confirmation process.

David Friedman, a conservative bankruptcy lawyer and Israel hardliner, has drawn howls from Democrats and liberal advocates for challenging the two-state solution with Palestinians and his harsh condemnation of peace-seeking Jewish groups.

But Lieberman, a former Democratic VP candidate and staunch Israel supporter, said Friedman’s most severe statements came “in the heat of the campaign” to elect Trump, predicting the nominee will soften his tone when he seeks Congressional approval.

{mosads}”I think you’re going to find in the weeks ahead in the confirmation process on David Friedman that it’s going to be very clear that … he and President Trump want to be part of achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and that some of the things he said really don’t reflect what he believes,” Lieberman told CNN on Thursday.

“I think you’ll find along the way that he will express some regrets.”

Friedman has come under fire most recently for saying liberal Jews — particularly those at J Street, a U.S.-based pro-Israel group advocating the two-state solution — “are far worse than kapos,” the damning term applied to Jews who cooperated with the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Lieberman, who joined Friedman’s New York law firm when he left Congress in 2013, rejected that characterization outright.

“I totally disagree with that statement and find it unfair and offensive,” Lieberman said. “And I’ve said this to David, and I think he will make clear that that’s one of the statements he regrets having made.”

The former Connecticut senator, who has long promoted the two-state solution as the only achievable avenue to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, amplified that position this week.

“I’ve looked at every other alternative over the years … and you can’t do it unless you recognize the right of the Palestinians to have their own state,” he said.

Friedman has taken a decidedly different tack, questioning the need for the two-state solution while supporting Jewish settlements in the West Bank in defiance to long-standing U.S. policy from administrations of both parties.

Lieberman on Thursday acknowledged that disagreement, but he also suggested both Trump and Friedman will have no choice but to back a Palestinian state if they hope to accomplish the stated goal of bringing piece to the volatile region.

“This much I’ve heard President-elect Trump say: He really would like to be part of achieving the ultimate agreement between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said. “You can’t do that without ending up with two states.”

On a third contentious issue, Lieberman and Friedman agree: Both support moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a shift Friedman vowed this month to make, despite warnings of a backlash from Palestinians who also claim the city as their capital.

“Israel is the only country in the world, as far as I know, where we don’t have our embassy in the city the host country designates as its capital,” Lieberman said.

“You’d have to argue against moving the embassy to Jerusalem based on the fact that you don’t think there will be Jews in Jerusalem anymore, and you know, that’s just not an acceptable position.”

Tags Donald Trump