Hillary Clinton Makes a New Friend in the MidEast: AIPAC

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a joint press conference with Israeli P.M. Binyamin Netanyahu

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited two of the most volatile regions of U.S. interest and investment over the weekend – Pakistan and Israel-Palestine – stumbling badly the closer she got to the promised land. Tonight she faces angry Arab foreign ministers in Morocco after undermining the moderate, U.S.-supported Palestinian Prime Minister in the political tinderbox that is Jerusalem. Her one-sidedness has left MidEast watchers wondering, what could she – and her handlers in Washington – have been thinking?

Clinton, after meeting with Palestinian P.M. Mahmoud Abbas, held meetings with various Israeli officials and a high-profile press conference with right-wing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. That’s where she veered to the right, delivering a message of solidarity with his hawkish policies and seeming to forget that he and his pro-settler cabinet have defied her boss, President Barack Obama, on freezing settlements in occupied Palestine.  As a measure of how unbalanced (and unlike Obama) her statements were, the hawkish AIPAC (American Israel Political Action Committee) immediately issued a statement of praise:

“As Secretary Clinton emphasized, at the very moment Israel is taking “unprecedented” steps to aid the cause of peace – making greater concessions than any previous Israeli government – it is Palestinian pre-conditions never heard before and the PA’s continual refusal to sit down and negotiate with Israel that are the immediate obstacles to restarting peace talks.

For over 60 years Israel has offered its hand in peace, demonstrating again and again their willingness to make real and heartrending sacrifices – altering borders, relinquishing territory, uprooting families and entire communities – in the pursuit of peace.”

It seems clear that Clinton forewarned Abbas that she would be taking sides during this visit. It also seems clear that he, and the Arab foreign ministers she has to face tonight, feel betrayed by this. Laura Rozen of Politico, traveling with the Secretary, called Clinton’s move a “misfire:”

Abbas…. looks weaker than ever, going into the elections he has called to be held in January. U.S. officials say Clinton will urge Arab leaders with whom she is meeting to support Abu Mazen, as he is known, saying he is the only viable option for achieving the creation of a Palestinian state.

But Abbas told Clinton at their meeting that he has been badly hurt by what appears to be a U.S. flip flop on the settlements freeze issue as well as an earlier decision he made apparently in consultation with moderate Arab regimes as well as Washington to refrain from demanding further United Nations action on a recent report by a commission headed by Richard Goldstone that investigated possible war crimes committed in Israel’s Gaza campaign earlier this year — a position he later reversed when it came under tremendous criticism in the Arab and Palestinian world.

“I fear her trip to Israel may be the final nail” in the coffin for the Obama administration’s efforts to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, one Washington Middle East hand said on condition of anonymity Sunday.

Clinton “went beyond Obama’s talking points in New York City,” he said. “She took sides on settlements” and appeared to “‘praise’ Israel and Bibi.”

While saying he is a friend and admirer of the Obama foreign policy team, the source said, “I think [they are] in over their head and there is no strong, capable person navigating this ship. It all seems unprofessional, a policy drifting in different directions.”

Different directions, indeed. Just last week at the groundbreaking J Street “pro-Israel, pro-peace” conference in Washington, Obama’s National Security Advisor Jim Jones got a standing ovation from nearly 2,000 members of the American Jewish community when he called for dismantling Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank. [See my extensive coverage of the J Street conference here.]

Clinton tried to backtrack in remarks to reporters this morning in Morocco:

“The Israelis have responded to the call of the U.S., the Palestinians, and the Arab world to stop settlement activity by expressing a willingness to restrain settlement activity,” Clinton told reporters. “The offer falls short of what our preference would be, but if it is acted upon, it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and would have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their growth.”