American author Thomas Friedman believes that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both want to be authoritarians, are working to undermine the rule of law and the so-called elites in their countries, and are seeking to eliminate what each calls the "deep state."

He wrote in his weekly column in the New York Times that the feelings he felt when he saw the photo of Trump and Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Monday were a mixture of disgust and depression.

He noted that both men treat their political opponents as enemies within, not legitimate opposition, and that each has appointed incompetent individuals to their cabinets.

He added that they are turning a blind eye to their traditional Democratic allies, and each believes that annexing more territory is a divine right, "from the Gulf of America to Greenland," in Trump's case, and "from the West Bank to Gaza," in Netanyahu's case.

He pointed out that American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria published a book in 2008 titled "The Post-American World," in which he predicted the future, predicting that the United States' relative global hegemony would decline with the end of the Cold War.

Friedman, inspired by Zakaria's book, argued that Trump and Netanyahu, each in their own country, were working to create a "post-American" and a "post-Israel" world. He explained that by "post-American," he meant the United States, which, on its best days, is deliberately abandoning its core identity as a state committed to the rule of law at home and improving the conditions of all humanity abroad.

He continued that by "post-Israel," he meant Israel, which is deliberately abandoning its core identity "as a democratic state based on the rule of law in a region ruled by tyrants."

In a literary vein, Friedman continued by saying that America was a moral and political beacon, like "a towering city built on rocks stronger than the oceans, buffeted by the winds, blessed by God, teeming with people of all walks of life living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports, bustling with commerce and creativity. If the city must have walls, the walls have doors, and the doors are open to anyone with the will and heart to come here."

However, he added that Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, want to transform it into a country that treats its democratic allies with contempt and has absolutely no interest in maintaining its soft power, which they despise despite being "the one advantage it has always had over Russia and China."

In a striking comparison, the author noted that Trump fired the FBI director for insufficient loyalty, while Netanyahu appeared poised to do the same with the head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, who is investigating some of the prime minister's top aides.

Friedman lamented that both leaders exploited divisions and used anti-Semitism to advance their political agendas, threatening to undermine the fabric of society. The author emphasized the importance of resisting these trends, comparing the struggle to prevent the decline of these countries to the decisive struggle for democracy and freedom.

Source: The New York Times + Al Jazeera