David Friedman and the Friends of Beit El Settlements

The article, Fund Headed by Trump's Israel Ambassador Pumped Tens of Millions Into West Bank Settlements, talks about the major backlash arising from U.S. President Donald J. Trump's choice of ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and his connections to the West Bank settlements controversy.

Beit El Settlements in the West Bank

The article begins with a backstory on David Friedman, the new appointed ambassador who has openly discussed his viewpoint on the West Bank settlements. Friedman has donated tens of millions of dollars to the radical settlements along with also creating a yeshiva through the organization he is currently president of. This yeshiva has been the center of much controversy due to the fact that the rabbi heading happens to be, according to Judy Maltz, a "militant rabbi who urges soldiers to disobey orders and also happens to believes eating certain foods can cause homosexual tendencies." 

The article continued to explain Friedman's relationship with the fundraising organization, American Friends of Bet El Institutions, and how he receives thousands of dollars in donations from Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and even got donations from Donald Trump himself (in 2003). These kinds of organizations were created to support the settlements in the occupied territories, in this case, the Beit El settlements in the West Bank. Friedman has openly spoken about his stance on the two-state plan, which he rejects.

David M. Friedman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel

The article, which is featured in Haaretz (the Israeli newspaper which, according to their Wikipedia page, claims tends left-wing and is considered more "liberal" in their political stances) shows a fair amount of bias against the newly elected ambassador. The author of the article, Judy Maltz, is known for being openly liberal on her personal Twitter page and consistently speaks out on her disapproval of Donald Trump and his cabinet. Maltz, who currently lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, attended college at Barnard University, a women's-only private liberal arts college in New York City which is known for being extremely left-wing. Maltz's democratic and liberal point of view must have played a role in the opinions she had about Trump's decision to appoint a very conservative David Friedman as the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Although the author does not openly discuss her disapproval of the settlements, she mentions the political affiliation of the rabbi of the yeshiva within the settlements and his bluntness about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Maltz wants readers to know that the yeshiva is run by a far-right militant rabbi and the organization funding him is run by an ultra-Republican right-winged politician, who was once even the lawyer of Donald Trump. Although the author of the article does not propose any counterargument or an opinion of her own towards the actions of Friedman and American Friends of Beit El, reading between the lines allows us to understand her stance and viewpoint on the controversy. For example, mentioning that the rabbi has beliefs that eating certain foods can cause homosexual tendencies might be irrelevant to the article on Friendman and his relations to the settlements, but is relevant in discrediting him as a reliable authority figure and makes him out to be a fool.

The article is extremely reliable in which all the information posted on the article is backed up and can easily be found on the internet with simple research. Maltz's information on the American Friends of Bet El Institutions is taken from their website (linked above) and all donor information and years can easily be accessed through their website. While Haaretz have proven to be accurate and trustworthy, the newspaper does tend to point in the direction of left-winged and against the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Many of the journalists working for Haaretz seem to be social justice leaders and for the two-state solution in Israel.