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Jewish World Review Nov. 2, 2000 / 4 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
AS NEW YORKERS prepare to elect a new U.S. senator on
November 7, Hillary Rodham Clinton remains hounded by twin suspicions
about her honesty and commitment to Israel. Her plunging support among
Jewish voters in a just-released survey suggests that these nagging
questions may be causing grave damage to her Senate candidacy.
Mrs. Clinton fueled these lingering doubts in November 1999 when she
kissed Yasser Arafat's wife, Suha, immediately after Mrs. Arafat
delivered a speech accusing Israel of murdering Arab children -- with
poison gas, no less. Mrs. Clinton said she did not understand the
simultaneous translation of Mrs. Arafat's Arabic remarks. In any case,
why the smooch? Given the PLO's legacy of violence, wouldn't a handshake
have sufficed?
Mrs. Clinton sparked further questions when she claimed that she asked
President Clinton to veto an anti-Israel resolution in the United
Nations Security Council on October 7. The U.S. abstained instead. But
did she really urge that veto, or simply concoct that story afterward to
limit the damage to her candidacy after the abstention drew fire? Mrs.
Clinton has been very uncomfortable discussing this matter. When I asked
her about this at an October 17 Council on Foreign Relations meeting,
she huffed: "That question does not even deserve a response. I have
said everything about that I have to say."
Now Hillary Clinton has puzzled Jewish voters and friends of Israel with
yet another stumble. The New York Daily News reported on
October 25 that her Senate campaign has returned $50,000 collected at a
Boston fund-raiser attended by Muslims and Americans of Arab descent.
The First Lady posed for photos holding a plaque given to her by the
event's organizers. It expressed the appreciation of the American Muslim
Alliance for her human rights activism. Mrs. Clinton now says she didn't
know the award was from the Alliance, even though the group's name was
emblazoned on the trophy in large letters. "I get handed thousands of
plaques," Mrs. Clinton now says. Alas for the First Lady, the
American Muslim Alliance's national president, Agha Saeed, favors the
Palestinian struggle for independence from Israel and believes the
Palestinians "have the right to resist by armed force."
Mrs. Clinton has hosted events at the Executive Mansion "to which
individuals opposed to the Mideast peace process and Israel's existence
were invited," the Daily News reported. Her Senate
campaign returned a $1,000 contribution from one of those visitors,
Abduraham Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council. According to the
Daily News , Alamoudi once declared: "We are the ones
who went to the White House and defended what is called Hamas," the
Palestinian terrorist group whose 1994 - 1996 suicide-bombing campaign
killed 130 people and wounded some 600 others. Shortly after one of its
bombs exploded in Jerusalem in August 1997, Alamoudi told Fox News about
Hamas: "I think it's a freedom-fighting organization."
Mrs. Clinton's June 30, 2000 Federal Election Commission filing cited
Alamoudi's May 25 donation of $1,000 to her war chest. Oddly enough, his
occupation is not listed as "American Muslim Council" but
"American Museum Council." The Clinton campaign calls this a
typo.
(To see Alamoudi's contribution record, search under his surname by clicking here.)
The letters L and I in "Muslim" are on the right side of
English-language computer keyboards while the E and U in "Museum"
are on the left and middle. It's hard to believe that "Muslim"
conveniently morphed into "Museum" due to a slip of a typist's
fingers rather than a deliberate effort to conceal a potentially
embarrassing contribution.
A reasonable voter might give another candidate the benefit of the doubt
here. But this is the same Hillary Rodham Clinton who is associated with
the "bureaucratic snafu" that led to Filegate.
This is the same First Lady whose Rose Law Firm billing records vanished
for two years, then magically reappeared in the White House residence
just days after the Resolution Trust Corporation concluded a
Whitewater-related probe in which the records would have been relevant.
"I do not know how the billing records came to be found where they
were found," the First Lady shrugged back in January 1996.
This is the same woman who special prosecutor Robert Ray believes gave
deceptive sworn testimony in the Travelgate affair. As Ray's October 18
report concludes: Mrs. Clinton "played a role in the decision to fire
the [White House Travel Office] employees and...thus, her statement to
the contrary under oath to this office is factually false."
As Bill Clinton's presidency wanes, a Hillary Clinton Senate term could
be waxing around the corner. For now, her Republican opponent stands in
the way. In a Zogby International poll published October 30 in the
New York Post , Rep. Rick Lazio, edged past the Dutchess of
Chappaqua 46.4 percent to 44.6 (margin of error: plus or minus 3.8
percent).
Mrs. Clinton's collapsing popularity among Jewish voters also spells
trouble. On October 29, Zogby found her leading Lazio among Jews by 68.8
percent to 27.3 for Lazio. (Margin of error: plus or minus 4 percent).
The next day, in the aforementioned October 30 poll, only 52 percent of
Jews favored Mrs. Clinton while Lazio's support climbed to 42
percent.
But the biggest obstacle between Hillary Clinton and her Capitol Hill
dreams may be her reluctance to speak candidly about the scandals that
nip at her heels like Park Avenue poodles. New Yorkers soon may decide
that they deserve better in the Senate than a politician's wife who
parachuted into the Empire State with ambitions nearly as awesome as her
allergy to the
By Deroy Murdock
JWR contributor Deroy Murdock is a New York-based commentator and columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service. To comment, please click here.
