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Change Your Life! |
Clinton's blunt comments may be blunders |
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August 1, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bill Clinton's blunt comments about possibly moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and his painting of Yasser Arafat as inflexible negotiator are reverberating in the Middle East - and in New York, where Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for the Senate. Administration officials say Clinton's tilt toward Israel following the Camp David talks was aimed at shoring up embattled Prime Minister Ehud Barak and was unrelated to the first lady's campaign. But she has seized on the issue, staking out a pro-Israeli stance that goes beyond her husband's. Until now, it has been an issue that has put her on the defensive. Hillary Clinton said Saturday that the embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem before year's end. The president said he would consider that option. The first lady also has outflanked her husband by demanding that all U.S. aid to the Palestinians be cut off if they unilaterally declare an independent state. Arafat and others have said the Palestinians are ready to make such a declaration on Sept. 13, the deadline for a final peace accord with the Israelis, if no deal is reached by then. President Clinton said that would be a "big mistake" for Arafat, but he has stopped short of advocating an aid cutoff, saying only that the "entire relationship" with the Palestinians would be reviewed.
"The president has said all along he would support those who take risks for peace," National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said Sunday when asked about Clinton's decision to distance himself from Arafat. White House spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said Sunday that the president's recently tougher language toward Arafat has nothing to do with Mrs. Clinton's Senate race. Clinton became the first president even to speculate publicly about moving the embassy to Jerusalem. The administration's position for many years has been that the embassy should remain in Tel Aviv pending a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians on Jerusalem's status. That is precisely what the two sides tried to achieve at Camp David. When the effort fell short, Clinton was quick to blame Arafat and to praise Barak who, he said, was "the more creative and more courageous" of the two. Given New York's heavily Jewish population, Middle East developments are followed more closely by voters in the city than elsewhere in the country. Not long after the talks Camp David collapsed last Tuesday, Hillary Clinton was staking out a staunchly pro-Israeli position. "It must be clear that any unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood would be entirely unacceptable and should be met with a cutoff of United States assistance," she said. Some New York supporters of Israel have been wary of the first lady. In 1998, she said that a Palestinian state was "very important" to Middle East peace. More recently, a new book alleges that she used an anti-Semitic slur in 1974, which she denies. Her Republican opponent, Rep. Rick Lazio, long has supported relocating the embassy to Jerusalem and has portrayed her as a Johnny-come-lately to that position. He says she previously opposed the move. For years, it has been common for presidential aspirants to go to New York and promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem, if elected. But those promises have never been kept by any successful candidate because of the practical realities. Some Israeli prime ministers have felt such a move would be destabilizing, as well. The changed circumstances since Camp David, according to The New York Times, led Barak to ask Clinton to modify his position on the embassy and he obliged. Barak went further - many Israelis think too far - than any predecessor in his willingness to make concessions on the emotion-laden Jerusalem question. Clinton apparently felt Barak deserved a tangible show of White House support, particularly with the Israeli leader facing a no-confidence vote Monday in Parliament. As that debate neared, the State Department's top Middle East expert, Edward Walker, was beginning an extensive tour of the Arab world for an exchange of views on the Camp David talks. Officials expect that Walker will get tough questioning from his Arab hosts about Clinton's embrace of Barak - and his newly combative attitude toward Arafat. EDITOR'S NOTE - George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The Associated Press since 1968. On the Net: State Department's Mideast summit home page: http://www.state.gov/www/regions/nea/cdavid-summit.html
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