David Melech Friedman (born August 8, 1958) is an American bankruptcy lawyer and US ambassador to Israel. He joins the law firm of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & amp; Friedman (later known as Kasowitz, Hoff, Benson & Torres) in 1994, where he met and represented Donald Trump, then chairman and president of The Trump Organization. He served as Trump's advisor during his successful presidential campaign. In December 2016, the transition team of President-elect Trump announced that Friedman was a Trump nominee for the ambassador. His candidacy has the support of conservative Israeli and American Jewish activist groups, and opposition from liberal advocacy organizations, particularly J Street. He was confirmed by the full Senate on March 23, 2017, with 52-46 votes, officially sworn by Vice President Mike Pence on March 29 and presenting his identity on May 15.
Video David M. Friedman
Early life and education
Friedman was one of four children born from Morris S. Friedman (d. 2005), a rabbi Temple Hillel and Addi Friedman, a high school English teacher. He grew up in North Woodmere, New York. His father was a rabbi at Temple Hillel, a Conservative synagogue in North Woodmere, and served as head of the New York Rabbi Council. His mother is a high school English teacher.
He earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Columbia University, graduated in 1978, and a law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of New York, graduating in 1981. He has been a member of the New York State Bar Association since 1982.
Maps David M. Friedman
Legal and philanthropic careers
In 1994, he left the law firm that is now dead Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & amp; Ferdon to form the practice of bankruptcy in Kasowitz, Hoff, Benson & amp; Torres. Friedman was promoted to name partner in 1995, and the company was renamed Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & amp; Friedman. As head of the creditor rights and bankruptcy group, Friedman suggests and represents Donald Trump and The Trump Organization in bankruptcy involving his Atlantic City casinos.
Friedman offered to head the American Friends of Bet El Institutions, an organization advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and providing about $ 2 million a year to the Israeli settlement of Bet El. The organization also received donations from the family foundation of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. In 1999, Friedman dedicated the Faculty of Friedman's House. The settlement runs the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva , where Friedman is a columnist. In his writings and statements, Friedman has repeatedly denied supporting Israeli settlements, stating that they are legal. He has also contributed to United Hatzalah ("unity rescue"), an Israeli organization providing emergency medical services, and Aleh Negev, a village for Bedouins and Jewish defects in southern Israel.
Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign
Friedman advised Trump on Israeli and Jewish issues during his presidential campaign, jointly leading Israel Trump Advisory Committee together with Jason D. Greenblatt, executive vice president for The Trump Organization. During the presidential election, he donated a total of $ 50,000 to the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. Four days before the election, Friedman and Greenblatt released a promising joint statement to move the US embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, one of Trump's campaign promises. Other presidential candidates, including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton, also promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem during their campaign. Moving the embassy will be a significant departure from US policy. Since the end of the Six Day War in 1967, the United States has formally declared that the final status of Jerusalem must be decided through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians; it does not recognize Jerusalem as the territory of Israel. The relocation will be in accordance with the Jerusalem Embassy Act, endorsed by Congress in 1995, requiring the transfer of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 31, 1999. The executive branch has consistently released the execution of the action, on the grounds that it will have an impact on security national. On June 1, according to his predecessor, President Trump signed an executive order guarding the embassy in Tel Aviv instead of transferring him to Jerusalem.
Nominations for US Ambassador to Israel
Reactions
On December 15, 2016, President-elect transition team Donald Trump announced that Friedman had been chosen to be a candidate as US ambassador to Israel. The nominations of Friedman are controversial; some American Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians and advocacy groups opposed his candidacy. Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, said moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and annexing West Bank settlements would lead to "destruction of the peace process" and send the region to "chaos, lawlessness and extremism" roads. Friedman said in an interview for Haaretz during the campaign that Trump will be open to Israel annexing parts of the West Bank. The US has been opposed to Israeli settlements in the West Bank since 1967.
J Street's liberal advocacy organization "strongly opposes" Friedman's nominations. During the presidential campaign, Friedman had attacked J Street supporters, writing in Arutz Sheva in May 2016:
Are J Street supporters really as bad as Kapos? The answer, actually, is not. They were far worse than the capos - Jews who surrendered their Jewish counterparts in the Nazi death camps. Kapos faces tremendous cruelty and who knows what we would do in such situations to save loved ones? But J Street? They are merely proud supporters of the destruction of Israel released from the comfort of their safe American couches - it's hard to imagine anyone worse off.
When asked about his comments on J Street at the Saban Forum in early December, Friedman has stood up with his statement, saying that J Street supporters are "not Jews, and they are not pro-Israel". The American advocacy organization for Peace Now, Ameinu, the Israeli Policy Forum, and the New Israel Fund also oppose the nomination. Six Democrats from the House of Representatives, including Jewish representatives Jan Schakowsky, Jerrold Nadler, John Yarmuth, and Steve Cohen, urged their Senate counterparts to vote against Friedman.
Five former US Ambassador to Israel - Thomas Pickering, William Harrop, Edward Walker Jr., Daniel Kurtzer, and James Cunningham - signed a letter stating that Friedman was ineligible.
Other Jewish and Israeli groups and individuals support the Friedman nomination. Nathan Diament, executive director for public policy at the Orthodox Union, praised Trump for his nomination as a change in relations between Israel and the United States from relations under Obama administration. Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said Friedman "has the potential to become the largest US ambassador in Israel". The Republican Jewish Coalition and Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the Christian and Jewish International Guild, both supported his candidacy. Israeli politician Tzipi Hotovely, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dani Dayan, Consul General of Israel in New York, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett all praised Friedman and welcomed his candidacy. The Yesha Council, the umbrella organization that organizes West Bank settlements, also supports the candidacy, says Friedman has "a deep love for all the land and the people of Israel, including those in Judea and Samaria," the biblical names of the land area called internationally as the West Bank.
Confirmation of the Senate
Friedman's confirmation was held on February 16, 2017. The trial was disputed; protesters from Muslim Americans for Palestine and Jewish group IfNotNow were arrested after interrupting the process several times. Friedman says he believes the two-state solution is the best way to resolve the conflict. He had previously questioned the need for it, declared as a representative for the Trump campaign, "two-state solutions are not a priority.... The two-state solution is the way, but it's not the only way." He also called it a "scam" and "destructive anachronism" in the February 2016 column for Arutz Sheva . He also agreed to sell his business interests in the region and end his support for the expansion of Israeli settlements. He apologized for his past language to J Street, maintaining his dissent with the organization. Yael Patir, director of Israel J Street, did not accept the apology.
Some Democrats from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee criticized Friedman's fitness for the position, while Republicans generally expressed their support. On March 9, 2017, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved its candidacy in the 12-9 elections. All Republicans voted in favor, along with Democrat Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Friedman was officially confirmed on 23 March. All Democratic and independent senators except Bob Menendez and Joe Manchin, from West Virginia, voted against it. 50 of the 52 Republican senators voted for him; two Republicans did not vote. On March 29, Vice President Mike Pence officially oversees the oath of office, vowing at Friedman. He replaced Leslie Tsou, who served as a temporary attorney after Daniel Shapiro left office on 20 January.
Ambassadorship
Friedman became US ambassador to Israel on May 15, 2017 when he handed his credentials to Israel's President Reuven Rivlin.
Personal life
Friedman is an Orthodox Jew and is fluent in Hebrew. She has been married to his wife, Tammy Deborah Sand, since 1981. They have five children and seven grandchildren. Princess Friedman, Talia Friedman, officially became an Israeli at Ben Gurion Airport on August 15, 2017. In 1984, Friedman met President Ronald Reagan when Reagan visited Temple Hillel. Reagan was the first president to sit since George Washington to visit the synagogue. Friedman became friends with Donald Trump in 2005, after Trump paid him a condolence call during his seated shiva for his father.
References
External links
- Appearance in C-SPAN
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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