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Jewish World Review Nov. 6, 2000 / 8 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
IN THE FINAL WEEKEND before electing their next U.S.
senator, New York voters continue to sift through constant revelations
about Hillary Rodham Clinton and her pro-terrorist donors. The First
Lady claims not to have known that the American Muslim Alliance (AMA)
sponsored a June 13 fund-raiser in Boston where she received $50,000 in
donations and a plaque. Her campaign originally stated that the event
was a meeting of Massachusetts Americans of Arab descent and that the
AMA later tried to say it arranged the gathering.
"I resent this organization that claims to have hosted this
event," Clinton declared last week.
Sunday's New York Post reports that Clinton sent a
warm note on White House letterhead offering "greetings to each of
you attending the American Muslim Alliance Convention" in October
1998. "I commend you for your efforts to encourage others to work to
make their voices heard in the present and for the future," she
continued. "Please accept my best wishes for a wonderful
convention."
The event's keynote speaker was Stanley Cohen, attorney to controversial
Clinton donor Abdurahman Alamoudi. Cohen told the meeting that the
"true terrorists are the state of Israel and its supporter, the
United States, in perpetuating the victimization of the Palestinians in
their own land."
This "New Hill Flap," as the Post's front-page
headline dubbed it, comes just 48 hours after further evidence of
Clinton's Mid-East mendacity. On Friday, after repeated press inquiries,
the Clinton campaign released an August 8 letter in which the first lady
thanks the AMA for hosting her June fund-raiser.
"It was a pleasure to be a part of the Massachusetts Chapter meeting
of the American Muslim Alliance," says the letter on White House
stationery. "The plaque is a wonderful reminder of my visit. Please
extend my appreciation and thanks to the entire membership." The
letter to Massachusetts AMA Chair Tahir Ali bears the first lady's
signature.
Clinton now says the correspondence was signed with an autopen. "I
never saw the letter before," she said. "I know nothing about
this...No reason to check it out with me, the form letter is sent
out."
Republican rival Rick Lazio's senatorial campaign responded to this news
with a satirical press release. "Autopen Casts Deciding Vote to
Double Taxes on New York," said yesterday's communique. "Vicious
Machine Says Money Needed to Provide Free Housing for Hollywood
Homeless."
Even if Clinton is telling the truth in this instance, one of her White
House aides should have searched for any such correspondence and
released it to reporters with a full accounting of what really happened.
Instead, in classic Clinton style, the truth has dribbled out since the
New York Daily News broke the story on October 25.
The tale of the mad autopen comes on the heels of additional information
about Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council (AMC). The
Clinton campaign returned his $1,000 contribution after learning of his
sympathies for Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for at
least 130 deaths and over 600 injuries in a variety of Israeli bomb
attacks. The Clinton campaign's June 30 filing with the Federal Election
Commission lists Alamoudi's occupation as "American Museum
Council" rather than "American Muslim Council." Just a typo,
the First Lady's campaign has said.
Alamoudi, for his part, embarrassed Clinton further with his remarks at
an October 28 rally at Lafayette Park, across the street from the White
House.
"I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of
Hamas," Alamoudi said. "Anybody support Hamas here?" Alamoudi
thrice asked the crowd of 3,000 as it screamed with excitement. "Hear
that, Bill Clinton?" he continued. "We are all supporters of
Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah...Does
anybody support Hezbollah here?"
Hezbollah, of course, is the terrorist group that claimed responsibility
for the 1983 explosion at a Beirut barracks that killed 239 American
Marines as they slept.
"It's an occupation, stupid," Alamoudi added, presumably of
Israel's presence in the Middle East. "Hamas is fighting an
occupation. It's a legal fight."
When the Daily News asked Alamoudi to comment on his
remarks, he replied, "You better check your Arabic." Told that he
had spoken in English, Alamoudi said, "It was in English? Oh my God,
I forgot!"
Alamoudi also served as a State Department goodwill ambassador. Since
1997, he has made six speechmaking trips to the Middle East, earning
$200-per-day plus a $200 expense per diem. Alamoudi lectured audiences
on religious tolerance.
As Middle East specialist Steve Emerson wrote in Friday's Wall
Street Journal the AMA and AMC also sponsored a 1998 Brooklyn
College rally where Islamic extremists demanded a "jihad" and
described Jews as "pigs and monkeys."
Hillary Clinton's deceptive game of footsies with such characters raises
new questions about her true sympathies. She has called for the creation
of a Palestinian state. She kissed Mrs. Yasser Arafat on the cheek after
Mrs. Arafat gave a speech in November 1999 claiming that Israel gassed
Arab children. (Bad translation, Clinton explained.) The first lady also
denied allegations that she called a former campaign advisor "a
fucking Jew bastard" after Bill Clinton lost a congressional bid
early in his career.
These facts may help clarify why Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind,
influential in New York's Orthodox Jewish community, endorsed neither
Clinton nor Lazio for Senate. Indeed, Democratic City Councilman Noach
Dear, a Brooklyn Jew, backed Lazio's candidacy Thursday, calling him
"a great friend of Israel" while handing out "Lazio/Dear"
yarmulkes.
The Long Island congressman still faces tough odds. The five-point lead
he enjoyed in the Zogby International poll on October 31 vanished after
voters seemingly became turned off by 500,000 state GOP phone calls that
overplayed the Clinton blood-money issue. They claimed that the first
lady's donors support terrorists, such as those who blew up the
USS Cole in Yemen last month. While Lazio did not sponsor
the calls, Clinton accused him of capitalizing on the tragic murder of
U.S. sailors.
For her part, Mrs. Clinton said in Rochester on November 2, "Those 17
young men and women died aboard defending our right to vote." WABC -
TV reporter Dave Evans wondered if "some of the audience in Rochester
thought that invoking the Cole tragedy in order to get out
the vote may have been a bit over-the-top." Apart from that, the New
York media have left Clinton's Rochester remarks largely unremarked
upon.
The GOP nominee gained support since yesterday's Zogby poll, but still
trails Clinton who leads 49.3 percent to Lazio's 44.9 (margin of error:
3.8 percent).
This see-sawing race likely will pivot on turnout. Some 2,000 members of
state teachers unions are calling Democratic voters to cajole them
telephonically to their precincts. Members of the United Auto Workers
and affiliated unions have received a mailing urging votes for Albert
Gore and Hillary Clinton.
The intensity of Lazio's supporters may be his secret weapon. They are
eager to help Hillary pack her carpetbag and go home. Since not even
gale-force winds will keep them from the polls, Lazio should pray for a
noreaster to sandbag Clinton's Gotham City base. Tuesday's forecast
calls for 58 degrees beneath partly cloudy
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.
Is Hillary Clinton hostile to both Israel and the truth?
