Jewish Leaders Blast Clinton Over Israel Criticism

[IndianaGreen]

Source: CBS

Feb 26, 2009 11:59 pm US/Eastern

Jewish Leaders Blast Clinton Over Israel Criticism

Zuckerman, Lawmakers, Local Jews Say Secretary Of State Not The Hillary Clinton They Used To Know
Hillary Pressuring Israel To Speed Up Aid To Gaza

NEW YORK (CBS) ― In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now hammering Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.

As First Lady, Clinton raised eyebrows when she kissed Suha Arafat.

Since she was then seeking a Senate seat the resulting brouhaha caused her to "re-think" her positions.

"I'm a very strong supporter of Israel," Clinton said back in February 2000.

On Thursday, as Secretary of State she had yet another about face in the form of angry messages demanding Israel speed up aid to Gaza. Jewish leaders are furious.

"I am very surprised, frankly, at this statement from the United States government and from the secretary of state," said Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News and member of the NYC Jewish Community Relations Council.

"I liked her a lot more as a senator from New York," Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, said. "Now, I wonder as I used to wonder who the real Hillary Clinton is."


Read more: http://wcbstv.com/national/hillary.clinton.israel.2.945238.html

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These are the politically conservative and Republican wing of the American Jewish community. They do not speak for the community as a whole. Mort Zuckerman? He is a moron!

[Why Syzygy]

1. Right wingers aren't happy unless they've got someone's lips stuck to their ass. nt

[EFerrari]

2. Fascinating! Go, HIllary!

[IndianaGreen]

4. Hillary is tough as nails, and Obama has Rahm Emmanuel in the White House

These are people with little stomach for bullshit.

[Skip Intro]

3. How dare America offer criticism of Israel? n/t

[Amonester]

5. I wonder which one of the following they'd prefer not to whine about :

1 - Critics
2 - Billion$ in free cash (& arms)

[aquart]

6. Israel is not above criticism.

Neither are the Palestinians and yet I never see any of that here.

[Grinchie]

7. I think that World Opinion holds the Country with the extraordinarliy

Sophisticated weapons systems, nuclear capability, and 40 years of violating UN Sanctions a little more responsible than a tiny nation it took over, settles, and cut into tiny separate pieces in the death of a thousand cuts.

Israel showed it's true colors recently, and they, like the Republicans, need to learn when to shut up.

On the other hand, it shows that the Israelis and the Republicans are one tight bunch, as neither knows when to shut up.

[antimatter98]

8. Glad to see Clinton take on Israel---we have to cut off their aid and give more to Gaza. n/t

[byeya]

9. We also should disentangle our military from Israels.

The USA should not have an integrated military force with Israel or any other country on an open-ended basis.

[No Elephants]

10. Yeah, keeping humanitarian aid out of Palestine is great stuff! How dare Hillary!

[GoesTo11]

11. "Now, I wonder as I used to wonder who the real Hillary Clinton is."

She really does say what is politically expedient at the time on this issue. Her statements while senator and presidential candidate were so unquestioningly supportive of Israeli policies she now criticizes. She's not as good at acting as some politicians.

[Jefferson23]

12. She is not acting imo, she is working for Obama, we don't know

how she would have responded if she had won the presidency.

[AyanEva]

13. Good point.

It makes me feel much more confident that he'll be able to maintain control over the message even if the people working for him have differing views on the subject at hand. :) Party/message discipline and all that.

[karynnj]

15. I agree with your observation, though I don't know how big the divide really is

I also think it important to say administration/message discipline. There will be times when the administration message will not be identical to the Congressional message and it is healthy that there be disagreements. The party message will be Obama's - but "discipline" is too strong a word for people outside the administration.

[AyanEva]

16. Very true.

The last thing we want is a Democratic version of the last eight years under Bush where no one challenged anything.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. She lost. Obama won.

She now works for him.

Get it?

[GoesTo11]

23. I just think the declarations of undying love for Israel were a bit tacky

If she really felt that way while she was senator, fine. But if it was just pandering (which I assume it was), then it would be better not to bother. I think that both Clinton and her boss are friends of Israel, but not blindly supportive of everything Israel does. But Senator Clinton was blindly supportive for expediency - get it?

[karynnj]

14. Zuckerman bought newspapers and magazines - therefore becoming

instantly a pundit. He is a neo-con and refects few in the Jewish community.

[Prometheus Bound]

21. Yes, that's a very good point. Conrad Black bought newspapers for the same reason.

It gives them influence. Their brethren in the press call them "leaders", when in fact their just individuals who own some money-losing (these days) newspapers. I wonder how many in the Jewish community consider him their leader.

[karynnj]

27. I have never heard a single Jew ever quote Zuckerman on anything

or ever reference him as someone they respect.

[badgervan]

22. I Hope You're Right

Just how much of the neocon screed is truly believed by the Jewish American community, and how much is AIPAC, etc., actually supported, trusted, and beleived in by the average Jewish American? It has always disturbed me just how much of our foreign/military money and physical presence goes to that part of the world. Does anyone really believe that the hardcore neocons want to bring "democracy" to countries like Iraq and Afghanistan? It just looks like they want a permanent American military presence in the middle east to act as Israel's protector/tough big brother... and Iraq was a perfect way to obtain that. That is why I, a Navy vet, can't back Prez Obama on his new plan to leave 50,000 plus American military in Iraq. Once they're there, I don't care if they call it a "support" function or not, seems like we'll be there for many, many years... exactly what the neocons have wanted from the start. And by the way, "support" troops in Iraq are combat troops... they all carry weapons, and would be naive not to.

[karynnj]

26. Look at the exit polls in the last 2 elections

Kerry and Obama each got over 3/4 ths of the Jewish vote. These are the two elections where the neo-con message was out there. Even in 2004, not a Democratic year, Kerry got only about 2% less of teh Jewish vote than the ticket with the first Jew on it got in 2000. This would seem to say that the neocon screed went nowhere.

I remember in late 2002 or early 2003 American Jews were FAR less likely to back going to war.

[badgervan]

28. Is It the Fact....

... that so many powerful string pullers in the MSMedia and government are overstating the American people's unshakable sort of union with and total support of Israel? Look at Fred Hiatt at the Washington Post... a true neocon and as pro-Israel as Joe Lieberman. The editorial and opinion pages have been slanting neocon for a few years now, to the point that I'm about to give up on the paper entirely. Gerson, Kristol, Krauthammer, Will, Hiatt, Cohen.... and more! We really should not be in the middle east, and we could sure use that money for our own country... and I don't see this as some sort of "wrong" opinion. I see it as common sense.

[opihimoimoi]

17. This can only mean Hill is doing an outstanding job....GO HILL, forget them assholes.

They think they be so special.....?

[JohnyCanuck]

19. "Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?"

Israel Blocks Pasta Shipment to Gaza, and Tensions Boil

by Dion Nissenbaum

JERUSALEM - For more than seven weeks, the international aid group Mercy Corps has been trying to send 90 tons of macaroni to the isolated Gaza Strip as part of a global campaign to help the 1.4 million Palestinians there rebuild their lives after Israel's recent devastating 22-day military operation.

he isolated Gaza Strip as part of a global campaign to help the 1.4 million Palestinians there rebuild their lives after Israel's recent devastating 22-day military operation. Israel, which controls most of what goes into and out of Gaza, has said no repeatedly.(McClatchy Newspapers photo)
Israel, which controls most of what goes into and out of Gaza, has said no repeatedly.

At first, Israeli officials said that they wanted to make sure that the macaroni wasn't destined for a Hamas charity. Then they said macaroni was banned because they didn't consider it an essential food item.

On Wednesday, days after American lawmakers raised pointed questions about the macaroni ban, Israeli authorities said that they were preparing to give the pasta a green light.

SNIP

The macaroni standoff drew the attention of U.S. lawmakers who made a rare trip last week to the Gaza Strip.

"Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?" Rep. Brian Baird, a Washington state Democrat who joined Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison in visiting Gaza, reportedly said after hearing about the aid restrictions.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/26-7

[karynnj]

20. Senator Kerry got that policy changed per Haaretz, an Israeli paper

(The fact that Haaretz printed this unflattering article - 3 times in 2 paragraph referring to "senior" - shows a willingness to criticize the government that is unlikely to exist in most middle eastern countries' news papers.)

"However, an incident occured last week at a crossing into the Gaza Strip that gave a very different impression to a senior observer. When Senator John Kerry visited the Strip, he learned that many trucks loaded with pasta were not permitted in. When the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee inquired as to the reason for the delay, he was told by United Nations aid officials that "Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid - only rice shipments."

Kerry asked Barak about the logic behind this restriction, and only after the senior U.S. official's intervention did the defense minister allow the pasta into the Strip. The U.S. senator updated colleagues at the Senate and other senior officials in Washington of the details of his visit."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066821.html

[fascisthunter]

24. Fundies of all Stripes are Dangerously Closed-Minded

[ReliantJ]

25. Whats the big deal