--- title: What Donald Trump's Pick for Ambassador to Israel David Friedman Means description: The President-elect's choice fits Benjamin Netanyahu's outlook like a lock fits a key canonical: https://time.com/4605223/donald-trump-israel-david-friedman/ author: Karl Vick article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-16T23:06:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:21:03.172Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What Donald Trump's Pick for Ambassador to Israel Means og:description: "There has never been a two-state solution," David Friedman wrote in August og:url: https://time.com/4605223/donald-trump-israel-david-friedman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c1745897cbaf23/6988b336196cf4722903e4d3/donald-trump-isreal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Donald Trump's Pick for Ambassador to Israel Means twitter:description: "There has never been a two-state solution," David Friedman wrote in August twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c1745897cbaf23/6988b336196cf4722903e4d3/donald-trump-isreal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Pick for Ambassador to Israel Opens a World of Unknowns > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a4238eb3-3608-4b0b-b5ad-8b3db3a26877&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Weekdays | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Weekly | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Twice a week | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a4238eb3-3608-4b0b-b5ad-8b3db3a26877&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=a4238eb3-3608-4b0b-b5ad-8b3db3a26877&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (health, weekdays), Worth Your Time (culture, weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a4238eb3-3608-4b0b-b5ad-8b3db3a26877&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Karl Vick](https://time.com/author/karl-vick/)  ## Karl Vick Editor at Large Dec 16, 2016 11:06 PM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Giant Center, on Dec. 15, 2016, in Hershey, Pa. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Giant Center, on Dec. 15, 2016, in Hershey, Pa. Matt Rourke—AP  by [Karl Vick](https://time.com/author/karl-vick/)  ## Karl Vick Editor at Large Dec 16, 2016 11:06 PM UTC Don’t even try thinking of Donald Trump’s[ choice for ambassador](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/donald-trump-david-friedman-israel-ambassador.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news) to Israel as a diplomat. David M. Friedman is far from that. But he serves very well as a reply in kind, an answer in human form. It’s like this: For the last three years Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man who leads Israel, has sent signal after signal that he’s done with peace talks, or ever pulling Israeli troops out of the West Bank. Sometimes these signals were verbal—in the 2015 election campaign, Netanyahu [declared flat out](http://time.com/3746427/netanyahu-no-palestinian-state/?iid=sr-link1) that there would be no Palestinian state. More recently the signals arrived in the form of diplomats—men who, like Friedman, had no prior experience in the subtle arts of statecraft, but whose biographies and attitudes said a great deal. In August, Dani Dayan became Israel’s Consul General in New York. To get his stuff, the moving van had to leave Israel and drive across the Green Line into Palestinian territory, where Dayan lived. He is a settler, a Jewish Israeli who moved to the West Bank in order to stake a claim to rocky hills that are also home to some two million Palestinians. In fact, for six years, Dayan headed the settlers’ primary organization, the Yesha Council. Earlier in the year, Brazil [rejected his appointment ](http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Israel-withdraws-Dayan-appointment-to-Brazil-names-him-instead-as-consul-general-to-NY-449400)as Israel’s ambassador to Brasilia, citing his settler background. In New York, Dayan joined a man with a similar name—Danny Danon, the new Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Danon was Netanyahu’s remarkable choice for the international body where the topic of Israel’s 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory is a chronic one. The new ambassador had written wrote a book suggesting that Israel simply annex the West Bank, perhaps leaving the Palestinians some urban areas. His rhetoric is famously scalding; after Israeli Defense Forces commandos killed nine Turks on a relief boat headed to the Gaza Strip, Danon [wrote to Turkey’s prime minister ](http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/routine-emergencies/.premium-1.671558)saying “We are sorry that due to the IDF’s over-cautious behavior, only nine terrorists were killed…” Danon’s appointment to Israel’s premiere diplomatic post— like Dayan’s as envoy to the largest concentration of American Jews—was as far as you can get from business as usual in Israeli diplomacy. For more than a generation, it at least nodded to the idea of a Palestinian state. That’s no longer the case. Not even from the next U.S. ambassador—a bankruptcy lawyer who has represented Trump’s casinos. “There has never been a two-state solution,” Friedman [wrote in August](http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18368), “only a two-state narrative.” And if it was that was a narrative in which moderate Palestinians invested pretty much everything, a story in which almost the entire world continues to believe, the crystalline signal from both Trump Tower and Jerusalem is that it’s all over now. The President-elect has clarified his position. Gone is[ the talk of brokering peace in the biggest deal ever,](http://time.com/4566802/president-donald-trump-israel-benjamin-netanyahu/) proving his bona fides as a dealmaker by being “sort of a neutral guy” or “honest broker,” as Trump himself put it in the campaign. With Friedman, he has cast his lot with Israel’s expansionist right-wingers, whose impulses decades of U.S. policy has tried to control, or at least balance, not least in order to keep hope alive among a Palestinian population sinking deeper and deeper into despair. What’s the way forward now? Is there an alternative narrative after the two-state solution? One other way to look at Trump’s fateful appointment is not just as a reply, but as an action. Trump’s choice fits Netanyahu’s like a lock fits a key. Who knows what’s in the box they open? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4605223/donald-trump-israel-david-friedman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4605223/donald-trump-israel-david-friedman/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Pick for Ambassador to Israel Opens a World of Unknowns","datePublished":"2016-12-16T23:06:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:21:03.172Z","description":"The President-elect's choice fits Benjamin Netanyahu's outlook like a lock fits a key","url":"https://time.com/4605223/donald-trump-israel-david-friedman/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c1745897cbaf23/6988b336196cf4722903e4d3/donald-trump-isreal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Karl Vick","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/karl-vick/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c1745897cbaf23/6988b336196cf4722903e4d3/donald-trump-isreal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump","caption":"Trump","creditText":"Matt Rourke—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4605223/donald-trump-israel-david-friedman/","name":"Donald Trump's Pick for Ambassador to Israel Opens a World of Unknowns"}}]}] ```