Hillary Clinton Hails "Unshakable Bond" With Israel [incl. Rashid Khalidi]

With all due respect, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actions speak louder than words. And the actions of the Obama administration have shown it is no friend of Israel.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday hailed the "unshakeable bond" between the United States and Israel in an effort to quell the diplomatic spat that has rocked ties between Washington and its closest Middle East ally.

"We have an absolute commitment to Israel's security. We have a close, unshakeable bond between the United States and Israel," Clinton told a news briefing.

Her comments marked a turn after days of tough U.S. talk following Israel's announcement last week that it would approve construction of a housing project in East Jerusalem, a move which infuriated the Palestinians and put hopes for resumption of Middle East peace talks on hold.

The U.S. secretary of state, who last week called Israel's announcement "insulting", on Tuesday brushed away suggestions that the U.S.-Israeli relationship was in the midst of its worst crisis in decades.

This administration, Clinton included, has turned against Israel from day one. Instead, they have embraced Palestinian terrorists who dream of a second holocaust and who teach their children that blowing oneself up in the middle of a crowded market place is an act of holiness. As a result, I can't help but feel that Clinton's words sound rather empty.

Obama's Israel crisis is extremely serious. Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren had already, accurately, called it the worst crisis in 35 years. P. David Hornik explains:

Since the anti-Israeli rancor stems from Obama himself, speculation could also focus on his personal motives: an ongoing identification with Palestinian positions; poor personal chemistry with Netanyahu and an inclination to blame him; or, on a less personal basis, animosity toward Netanyahu as an Israeli leader who is perceived as "hard-line" and obstructing peace no matter how many concessions he makes; adherence to a mistaken belief that Middle East-wide instability stems from Israeli-Palestinian tensions; all or some of the above mixed with frustration at the difficulty of the "peace process" that Obama adopted so resolutely as a goal at the start of his term; or he could be motivated by whatever it is that makes the Jewish state the target of so much special malice and denigration.

It seems to me that the current policy towards Israel is, indeed, not dictated by Hillary Clinton – who, after all, is a hawk – but by the big man, Barack Obama, himself. Unlike his secretary of state, the president has no record of supporting Israel.

To the contrary, he is a friend of Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi, a man who calls Israel's creation in 1948 a "catastrophe." Obama said about him that his insights were "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases … It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation — a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."

Additionally, journalist John Batchelor says that "AAAN vice-president Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada [a website that, like AAAN, refers to Israel's creation as a "catastrophe"] has remembered Mr. Obama's speaking in 1999 against 'Israeli occupation' at a charity event for a West Bank refugee camp; and Mr. Abunimah … has also recalled Mr. and Mrs. Obama at a fundraiser held for the then-Congressional candidate Obama in 2000 at Rashid and Mona Khalidi's home, where Mr. Obama made convincing statements in support of the Palestinian cause."*

This problem is starting to worry me more and more. I knew, of course, that Obama was pro-Palestinians when he took office, but I did not quite expect people like Hillary Clinton to aid and abet his anti-Israel policies to such a degree.

The bond between Israel and the U.S. certainly seemed "unshakable," as Clinton puts it, before Obama became president, but not so ever since. Sadly, the opposite is true: it's becoming increasingly clear that the relationship between both is deteriorating fast.

Thanks to John Perazzo and DiscoverTheNetworks for collecting this information on Obama, his associates and other leftists.

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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Middle East studies in the News

Hillary Clinton Hails "Unshakable Bond" With Israel [incl. Rashid Khalidi]

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