Humph!! - To put it simply, as a more conventional politician, Hillary is good on Israel and relates to the country in a way this president doesnt. She visited the country for the first time in 1981 and has been as frequent visitor ever since; she has long-standing ties to a wide range of Israeli personalities and has incorporated all of the tropes from Leon Uriss novel Exodus, including making the desert bloom, etc., into her vocabulary. Unlike Obama, who was not quite 6 years old at the time of the 1967 war (the seminal event that mobilized both the non-Jewish and Jewish communities in support of Israel), Hillary is from a different generation and functioned in a political world in which being good on Israel was both mandatory and smart. Lets be clear. When it comes to Israel, there is no Bill Clinton 2.0. The former president is probably unique among presidents for the depth of his feeling for Israel and his willingness to put aside his own frustrations with certain aspects of Israels behavior, such as settlements. But this accommodation applies to Hillary too. Both Bill and Hillary are so enamored with the idea of Israel and its unique history that they are prone to make certain allowances for the reality of Israels behavior, such as the continuing construction of settlements. Much of this is political. As veteran pols they are pragmatists. Hillary opined in Hard Choices that she was uneasy with the presidents call for a comprehensive settlement freeze because it would escalate a fight with Netanyahu that the United States probably couldnt win. foreignpolicy/articles/2014/11/10/would_hillary_be_good_for_the_holy_land_obama_israel_bibi?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2AEditors%20Picks&utm_campaign=2014_EditorsPicks11%2F10RS
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 12:48:15 +0000
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