The harder the U.S. worked to gain independence for the Palestinian Authority the faster Islamic extremism seemed to grow in Egypt and the Gulf. Not only did the Clinton administration’s policy fail to help; if anything the drive to help create a Palestinian state caused American leaders to become more passive in the face of terror attacks. Clinton’s fears of upending Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were very probably the most important reason for his weak response to the African embassy attacks in 1998 and the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.
Contrast the media’s excitement over The Price of Loyalty with the virtual shunning accorded American Evita a warts-and-all account of Hillary Rodham Clinton released this spring. Written by Christopher Andersen the author of more than two dozen books and someone impossible to dismiss as a right-wing hack American Evita blends already known aspects of Sen. Clinton’s life story with disturbing new revelations.
Writing about Hillary’s activities in the mid-1970’s Andersen discloses: Through her many left-wing friends and contacts….Hillary was introduced to many like-minded radicals. Among her new friends: New York-based representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization who were lobbying feverishly to be recognized as a diplomatic entity by the United Nations.
According to Andersen Hillary was telling friends that she was ‘sympathetic’ to the terrorist organization and admired its flamboyant leader Yasser Arafat. When Arafat made his famous appearance before the UN General Assembly in November 1974 wearing his revolutionary uniform and his holster on his hip Bill [Clinton] was outraged like everybody else said a Yale Law School classmate. But not Hillary who tried to convince Bill that Arafat was a freedom fighter trying to free his people from their Israeli oppressors.
Flash forward to 1978. Four years after Arafat’s scorching attack on Israel at the UN writes Andersen one of his staunchest supporters Vanessa Redgrave showed up at the Academy Awards to accept a best supporting actress Oscar for Julia and blast the Zionist hoodlums who picketed her presence at the ceremony. Redgrave was practically booed off the stage for her remarks but according to a friend in Arkansas Hillary defended the actress’s stance.
Hillary’s line basically was that there were two sides to the Palestinian question and that Jews in this country had too much money and power and that they’d pretty much shut off all debate.
Perhaps Andersen’s most explosive charge concerns an incident in 1973 when Hillary accompanied Bill on a visit to a politically well-connected friend of Bill’s in Arkansas. When they drove up to the house Andersen writes Bill and Hillary noticed that a menorah – the seven-branched Hebrew candelabrum (not to be confused with the more common and subtler mezuzah) – had been affixed to the front door.
My daddy was half Jewish explained Bill’s friend. One day when he came to visit my daddy placed the menorah on my door because he wanted me to be proud that we were part Jewish. And I wasn’t about to say no to daddy.
To his astonishment as soon as Hillary saw the menorah she refused to get out of the car. Bill walked up to me and said she was hot and tired but later he explained the real reason. According to the friend and another eyewitness Bill said I’m sorry but Hillary’s really tight with the people in the PLO in New York. They’re friends of hers and she just doesn’t feel right about the menorah.
Do you mean to tell me Bill’s friend shot back that she is going to be part of Yasser Arafat and all those people
Bill shrugged. Hillary really backs the PLO and doesn’t like what Israel is up to he said looking sheepish. Anyway she just thinks having a menorah on your front door…she just doesn’t like it that’s all.
Incendiary stuff but the book’s been out a few months now and no one in Sen. Clinton’s camp has attempted to debunk Andersen’s account nor has anyone threatened to sue Andersen or his publisher William Morrow for libel.
For those who would argue that Clinton has been a dependably pro-Israel voice since her election to the Senate in 2000 or that views she once espoused don’t necessarily reflect her current thinking the response here is: So what? She’s an elected official from New York – being publicly pro-Israel comes with the territory. And just imagine the media frenzy that would ensue were similar stories to circulate about the past political affiliations of say a certain Texan currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the nation’s capital.