Hillary Clinton Op-Ed Is Acknowledgment That Obama Hurt US-Israel Relationship

The Forward Clinton NetanyahuYesterday’s Forward featured a pretty unusual op-ed, from Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. The piece was originally titled “How I Would Forge Better Ties to Israel — and Rebuild Bond with Benjamin Netanyahu.” This op-ed would seem to confirm what we have been told, beginning in 2011 by Dan Senor, and more recently by Michael Oren and even Dennis Ross — that Obama bears the responsibility for the deterioration in the US-Israel relationship.

Granted, editors often write titles and Clinton may not have written this one. And the editors at the Forward, apparently realizing the implications of it, have now changed it. But the fact that she felt the need to write this at all is evidence that Israel’s supporters in the US no longer trust the Democratic party on this issue. The piece itself, however, does not persuade me to change that view as it applies to Clinton.

Clinton writes that on her first visit to Israel in 1981, “Bill and I fell in love with Jerusalem as we walked the ancient streets of the Old City.” Yet, in 2010, as Secretary of State, she berated Prime Minister Netanyahu for allowing Jews to build houses in that city. She told him at the time that planned housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem sent a “deeply negative signal” about Israeli-American relations, and harmed “the bilateral relationship.”

Clinton and NetanyahuClinton may love the charms of Jerusalem, but like President Obama, she subscribes to the discriminatory notion that there are parts of the city in which Jews simply should not be permitted to live. As I’ve written before, such segregated housing practices have been banned in the US, and for good reason. The argument that demographic changes in a neighborhood will predetermine the outcome of any future negotiations for a Palestinian state is merely an endorsement of the racist proposition that the future Palestinian state must be Jew-free.

The notion that there are places that Jews should not be permitted to legally purchase or build homes merely because they are Jews goes far beyond the issue of support for Israel and is blatantly anti-Semitic. I’d like to hear Clinton denounce that policy, and affirm that Jews ought to be able to live in any part of Jerusalem in which they are able to purchase or rent property. If she is not willing to do that, then she is continuing an endorsement of policies that are not specifically anti-Israel, but that are more broadly anti-Semitic.

Clinton’s article in the Forward also fails to adequately address her role in the negotiations with Iran that ultimately lead to the JCPOA. Her promise to “vigorously enforce” that agreement rings hollow, as it does nothing to address the fact that the agreement itself permits Iran to build a nuclear bomb 13 years from now, and does nothing to prevent Iran from continuing to fund terrorism.

Nor does she assert that she will depart from Obama’s policy, to use Dennis Ross’s words, of giving Palestinians “a complete pass.” I have to wonder, therefore, whether her promise that “as president I will never stop working to advance the goal of two states for two peoples living in peace, security and dignity,” really just means that she will continue to push Israel for unilateral concessions, and continue to blame Israel when those concessions lead nowhere.

Finally, she fails to explain her enthusiasm for the mentally unstable anti-Semitic Jew, Max Blumethal.

A lot more than an op-ed in the Forward will be needed to convince me that she is, as she claims, committed to Israel’s security, as well as to convince me that she does not espouse anti-Semitic views.

9 thoughts on “Hillary Clinton Op-Ed Is Acknowledgment That Obama Hurt US-Israel Relationship”

  1. to quote a not so great president

    fool me once….shame on you

    fool me twice….WONT GET FOOOOOLED AGAIN

    her enthusiasm for max may have come during the stage when he still was simply bashing the right, but it doesnt explain why she continued her relationship with he dad, long after max started his crusade against israel and the jews

    and sids opinions on israel arent that much different than maxxies

    if this was real, this was simply a play to the donors she has that are very pro israel

    i dont trust or believe her

  2. Read Dennis Ross’ book and then tell us that he believes Obama is solely or principally responsible for the deteriorating relationship between the US and Israel. That is a complete misreading of his views. Dennis Ross places Obama’s views on Israel and Netanyahu in an historical context of how other American administrations have dealt with Israel and makes it clear they are not significantly different from past presidents. (Ross points out that Nixon took far more hostile actions against Israel than Obama ever has.)

    I really don’t know what Hillary Cinton’s policies will be towards Israel if she becomes our next president. My guess is that she will be more like her husband Bill Clinton than Barack Obama. That has some good aspects and bad aspects for our relationship as long as Bibi Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel. Bill Clinton believed that it was in our mutual best interest that there be as little daylight between our policies toward the Palestinians and the larger Arab and Muslim world. But Bill Clinton never believed Bibi was ever for the two-state solution and was and is an obstacle to Middle East peace.

    Finally, I have to tell you as I have other contributors to this blog, that to smear our American political leaders with the stain of being called anti-Semitic requires a lot more evidence than you’ve provided here, Mirabelle. It is offensive to me, and if you can’t support such a serious charge, you really should stop saying such an outrageous thing.

    1. Jim let me ask you to consider two questions:

      1. What if Clinton had called up Mayor Bloomberg in 2010, and told him that he should not allow Blacks to purchase or build homes in Manhattan’s upper east side, one of the last almost exclusively white neighborhoods, so as to preserve the demographic character of the neighborhood? How would you react?

      I’m quite certain you would be repulsed, as would I, and as would any decent person. And in fact such housing segregation is illegal in the US.

      2.How is what she said to Netanyahu different?

      I explained more fully here: http://www.israellycool.com/2014/10/03/white-house-endorses-housing-discrimination-against-jews/

      Still, I was very careful not to say that Clinton *is* anti-Semitic; I actually don’t think that she is. I said that that particular view is anti-Semitic, and I’d like her to denounce it. Otherwise I will have to assume that she continues to agree with it.

      As for Dennis Ross, here’s what he told Jeff Goldberg a month ago: “The president came in thinking that he needed to distance the U.S. from Israel.” http://www.israellycool.com/2015/10/11/dennis-ross-confirms-obama-not-netanyahu-tanked-us-israel-relationship/

      1. OK, while I see huge holes in any such comparison with where Blacks are allowed to live in the Greater New York City area and where Jews are allowed to build on disputed land in the middle of a conflict zone, I do think the Obama Administration went too far in trying to completely end all settlement expansion for an in-determinant period of time in the West Bank (i.e. past American administrations had allowed for natural growth in Jewish communities). This was a departure from past policy, but not suggestive of anti-Semitism in any way.

        Dennis Ross, unlike Michael Oren and Dan Senor, went to great lengths not to assign blame to either Obama or Netanyahu for their deteriorating relationship. Ross was making the case that Obama/Netanyahu difficulties were in the norm with other past American presidents and Israeli prime ministers. The other major theme of his book is that the relationship between Israel and the United States represents one of mutual benefit rather than a significant burden on each other.

        I’m still having a hard time differentiating how someone whose views are anti-Semitic is not an anti-Semite.

        1. I doubt there is a person on the planet who does not hold some views that are bigoted in some way, whether it is that white people can’t dance or that boys shouldn’t cry. We live in a society that constantly bombards us with such messages and we all internalize them to some extent. I would say, the difference is that a person who actually is a bigot 1. holds many such views, and 2. is unwilling to reflect on criticism of those views but instead holds fast to them when challenged.

  3. I don’t believe she is pro or anti israel. She is pro cash. That is it. Right now, the anti Israel side has more cash, but there is still some Jewish cash out there that she hasn’t got her hands on yet.

  4. I honestly think we get the most accurate take on Hillary’s views of the conflict and the region in general by examining her Husband’s record on the matter. I see her as simply carrying water for her boss throughout the Obama administration.

    Just sayin`’. Don’t take that as an endorsement.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top