In her forthcoming memoir, Hillary Clinton generally aligns herself with President Obama but distances herself at the margins: She had a different take on Syria and the Bowe Bergdahl deal, she says.
But in at least one respect the former secretary of state faults herself and the Obama administration: We were wrong to draw a hard line on settlements.
By the way, Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 in part by running to George H.W. Bush’s right on settlements. Bush had drawn a hard line against them. Not Clinton. He raised a lot of money on that basis.
Haaretz reports on Clinton’s flipflop:
Former U.S. Secretary of State claims in a new memoir that the American administration made a tactical error by demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze construction in the settlements in 2009.
“In retrospect, our early, hard line on settlements didn’t work,” Clinton writes in Hard Choices, to be released next week, AP reported.
Clinton, widely estimated in Washington to vie to the presidency in 2016, writes in her memoir that the demand for a construction freeze in the West Bank only hardened the stance of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who eventually rejected negotiations because the freeze did not include East Jerusalem…On the other hand, she discusses the tattered relationship between the Israeli prime minister and President Obama, and notes the latter’s fury when Israel announced new settlement construction during a state visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden.
Speaking of the relationship between Obama and Netanyahu, this is delicious/awful: it goes both ways, Netanyahu “loathes” Obama. And his enmity for the president is undermining Israel’s security, says the leader of the opposition Labor Party. From the Times of Israel:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “loathes” Barack Obama, and his hostile attitude to the US president constitutes a danger to Israel’s well-being, the head of the Israeli opposition charged on Friday night, in a highly unusual acknowledgement of the long-rumored strained personal ties between the two leaders.
In a bitter verbal assault on the prime minister, Labor party chairman Isaac Herzog slammed Netanyahu for failing to listen to the international community, failing to present peace proposals of his own for an accord with the Palestinians, and failing to work properly with Obama.
It was “a tragedy” that Netanyahu had not presented a peace plan, and was instead “dragged” into responding to other proposals, said Herzog. “The second tragedy, that endangers the security of Israel, is his loathing and hostility for Barack Obama,” Herzog went on, describing this as “one of Netanyahu’s gravest failures.
Yeah, it was so wrong to “come down hard” on the settlements, even if come down hard meant they never stopped growing.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/departures-arrivals/.premium-1.597152
“Hello, can I ask which of you is flying?
Moriah: I’m going for three weeks. I have a friend who has American citizenship and now lives in Louisiana, and I am going to visit her. I haven’t seen her for a long time. We might go on from there to Miami or Mexico.
Valerie: But the good life is really here in Israel!
Who are the escorts?
Moriah: My sister and my aunt, Valerie. Family. Who else would take me to the airport?
Valerie: I actually immigrated to Israel from France because of them.
Really?
Because of my sister, their mother. I immigrated 18 years ago, 10 years after her. I would always come to visit, and I like best being with my nephews and nieces.
Were you born Jewish?
Of course. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Paris, but if you want to be Jewish it’s better here. All my siblings are here now, thank God. After I married, it was obvious that I would raise my children here. I didn’t want everything around to have to do with gentiles.
Did your husband agree to come here?
It was understood. My husband grew up in France and it was clear to him, too. We were married here and we have, thank God, five children, touch wood.
How did you end up in Kiryat Arba?
At first I lived in Jerusalem and went to an ulpan [Hebrew-language course]. My sister already lived in Kiryat Arba, and I saw that there was a pleasant atmosphere there. I liked the way the children were growing up. Kiryat Arba has changed for the better – it used to be said that only settlers live there, today it has everything. ”
It’s important that Jews can live anywhere they want in Erez Israel and have easy access to the airport, even if that means that 5 million people live half lives of poverty and restricted movement.
And Kiryat Arba is fabulous- it has everything, although still no Palestinians.
But they wouldn’t understand and they love their lives.
And this Jim Crow is going to fly indefinitely, is it? Hill needs the money but which Dem is going to follow his or her people and pull the plug ?
Aw, someone is running for President. First please Israel/AIAPC, then the rest will follow. Shame on Hillary for already showing her devotion and loyalty to the alien nation, whose tune she will dance to. If Adelson cannot buy the White House for Israel, then this is the next best thing. If Hillary does not show she disagrees with what President Obama has done regarding Israel, then chances are she will lose.
Israel will interfere even more the next Presidential elections, in ways we will never know. It is so sad that even our elections are made so toxic by a despicable, alien nation. Damn all those who interfere in our politics, and policies.
what pandering.
no blame for the israelis!
this is not the 90’s. if she runs to the right of settlements she’ll lose more lefties than she’ll gain on the right. i won’t vote for her, i’ll stay home if it comes down to her.
This is actually a very interesting development. The race for nomination for presidential candidate of the Democratic party might now also feature the I/P discussion, if she really has taken such a turn to the right on this issue.
Posted response to Baldur in wrong spot. See somewhere above.