Talk:Thomas Friedman

Dispute over a new section
Hi,

I added the following paragraph under the Views section of this article. Calling hundreds of millions of people living in the Middle East insects is a significant part of a journalist's viewpoint, and it is deserved to be known, as his view on Iran or China have been recorded on this very page.

User @Hemiauchenia deleted my addition and noted that "Doesn't seem that notable honestly", which I disagree given the significance of this opinion. I reverted it back, but then the same user added a page on my Talk page that this topic is contentious as it is related to the Arab–Israeli conflict and that I should not edit the page anymore because I do not have 500 edits so far.

I do not have much experience in conflict resolution over Wikipedia, but it seems that explaining the situation on the Talk page is the first step to start it. Hence, my post here. I'd like to get the opinion of more experienced editors on this matter.

I would like to note that this opinion has already attracted a lot of attention. Some of them have been collected here: [Outrage over Bigotry, Islamophobia in Wall Street Journal & New York Times].

Thank you!

The Middle East as the Animal Kingdom
In an opinion piece published at New York Times on Feb 2, 2024, he compared the Middle East as a jungle and many of the Middle Easterns to various types of insects. He compared Iran to a recently discovered species of parasitoid wasp, and Yemen, Syria, and Iraq as caterpillars. Netanyahu is the sifaka lemur, which he observed in Madagascar, and the US as an old lion that is still the king of the Middle East Jungle. SoloGen (talk) 03:26, 5 February 2024 (UTC)


 * Thomas Friedman is a commentator whos profession it is to express opinions. We can't include references to every column he has ever written, and it doesn't make sense to give this single post its own subheading. It might be worth including under the Iran subheading, as the post does seem to have attracted some external comment e.g., but meh. Hemiauchenia (talk) 03:35, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * It turns out the wasp article was in the article already, but was under the Israel section. I've moved it to the Iran section. As it's already in the article and I don't object to it being there I think dispute is resolved. Hemiauchenia (talk) 03:40, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

Views - Israel
Why is the section that is dedicated to Friedman’s views on Israel start with criticism on his views? No other section of his views have that beginning. Barakpick (talk) 13:27, 10 July 2024 (UTC)