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Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 04:12 PM Dec 2015

"Clinton has developed a reputation as one of the most right-wing Democrats on Israel/Palestine"

link to very insightful analysis on Truth-Out; here's an excerpt:

Supporters of the international legal framework - which has, with mixed success, governed international affairs since the end of World War II - have long expressed concerns over the prospect of former senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton becoming president. Her support for the US invasion of Iraq (a flagrant violation of the UN Charter), as well as her hostility toward the International Criminal Court, her support for international recognition of Morocco's illegal annexation of occupied Western Sahara, and her attacks against the United Nations and a number of its key agencies raise concerns that her election would bring a return to the Bush administration's neoconservative rejection of longstanding international legal principles.

Hillary Clinton has developed a reputation as one of the most right-wing Democrats on Israel/Palestine.
One of the big challenges regarding the application of international law is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which involves a foreign belligerent occupation, illegal colonization, war crimes committed by both the occupying power and at least one arm of the resistance, and scores of UN Security Council resolutions. ... As a senator, Clinton defended Israel's colonization efforts in the occupied West Bank and was highly critical of the United Nations for its efforts to uphold international humanitarian law, which forbids transferring civilian populations onto territories under foreign belligerent occupation. Clinton criticized the UN's enforcement of four UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to end the practice, and even took the time for a 2005 visit to a major Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank in a show of support. She moderated that stance somewhat as secretary of state in expressing concerns over how the right-wing Israeli government's settlement policies harmed the overall climate of the peace process, but she has refused to acknowledge the illegality of the settlements or demand that Israel abide by international demands to stop building additional settlements. Subsequently, she has argued that the Obama administration pushed too hard in the early years of the administration to get Israel to suspend settlement construction.

In 2011, Clinton successfully pushed for a US veto of a UN Security Council resolution reiterating the illegality of the settlement drive and calling for a settlement freeze. The UN Security Council has traditionally been the vehicle for enforcing international law in territories under foreign belligerent occupation, but Clinton noted, "We have consistently over many years said that the United Nations Security Council - and resolutions that would come before the Security Council - is not the right vehicle to advance the goal," despite the US failure to stop this colonization drive on its own.... She has vigorously defended Israel's wars on Gaza. As secretary of state, she took the lead in attempting to block any action by the United Nations in response to a 2009 report by a UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission - headed by the distinguished South African jurist Richard Goldstone (a Zionist Jew) - which documented war crimes by both Israel and Hamas. She has implied that the report denied Israel's right to self-defense, when it in fact explicitly recognized Israel's right to do so. Since the report's only objections to Israeli conduct were in regard to attacks on civilian targets, not its military actions against extremist militias lobbing rockets into Israel, it appears that either she was deliberately misrepresenting the report, never bothered to read it before attacking it or believes killing civilians can constitute legitimate self-defense.... When Israeli forces attacked a UN school housing refugees in the Gaza Strip in July 2014, killing dozens of civilians, the Obama administration issued a statement saying it was "appalled" by the "disgraceful" shelling. By contrast, Hillary Clinton - when pressed about it during an interview with The Atlantic - refused to criticize the massacre, saying, "{I}t's impossible to know what happens in the fog of war." Though investigators found no evidence of Hamas equipment or military activity anywhere near the school, Clinton falsely alleged that they were firing rockets from an annex to the school. In any case, she argued, when Palestinian civilians die from Israeli attacks, "the ultimate responsibility has to rest on Hamas and the decisions it made."

Though President Obama has provided more aid to Israel than any previous US administration and taken a number of other unprecedented steps in support of Israel, Clinton has criticized him for being too critical of Israel's right-wing government. In response to the chilly relationship between Obama and Netanyahu, she has promised to invite the right-wing Israeli prime minister to the White House within a month of coming to office. She has rejected taking a position of "tough love" advocated by Israeli moderates and liberals and says that any disagreements with Israeli policies should be only done "in private and behind, you know, closed doors" on the grounds that otherwise "it opens the door to everybody else to delegitimize Israel." In Clinton's view, then, supporting Israeli moderates by publicly opposing efforts to undermine the peace process and ongoing violations of international humanitarian law by the country's right-wing government is the same as "delegitimizing" the nation itself. And since, under her leadership, the State Department formally listed efforts to "delegitimize" Israel as part of its definition of anti-Semitism, it may give some indication as to how her administration would characterize those who do publicly raise concerns regarding certain Israeli policies.... Perhaps the single most revealing episode showing Clinton's rejection of international law as a basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace occurred in reaction to a landmark 2004 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice.... The World Court made a definitive ruling that member states of binding treaties, conventions and charters such as the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Charter are obliged to ensure that other member states live up to their legal obligations under those agreements. Specifically, the court insisted that every country that is party to the Fourth Geneva Convention must "ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention.".... However, just as Hillary Clinton chose to ignore the UN Charter by voting to invade Iraq, she also believes the United States should be able to ignore the world's highest court.

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Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)
1. I'll be honest, it's not much of an achievement
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 04:17 PM
Dec 2015

Israel / Palestine is one of those areas where Democrats and Republicans seem to largely agree. Even Sanders isn't terribly admirable on the issue, though I do think he'd give a fairer shake than Clinton - by a margin, at least.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
2. ''How I Would Reaffirm Unbreakable Bond With Israel — and Benjamin Netanyahu'' by Hillary Clinton
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 04:20 PM
Dec 2015



In her own words notice almost no mention of Palestine


http://forward.com/opinion/national/324013/how-i-would-rebuild-ties-to-israel-and-benjamin-neta/


"Sanders: Im Not A Great Fan Of Netanyahu"
In his own words on Israeli and Palestine

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/6/16/1393386/-BNR-Sanders-Im-Not-A-Great-Fan-Of-Netanyahu

angrychair

(8,699 posts)
3. Seriously
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 04:22 PM
Dec 2015

I want an HRC supporter to give their perspective on this. This is pretty damning and very telling of how she would be as president. She is very much to the right of PBO. Right of Sanders.
This isn't slander. It isn't a right wing source. It is her own words and public positions on issues.

Well?

tritsofme

(17,379 posts)
5. I am proud that Clinton is a strong supporter of the Jewish state.
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 04:29 PM
Dec 2015

This is not a left/right issue in America, but a consensus.

tritsofme

(17,379 posts)
7. Netanyahu is likely to be gone before the end of Clinton's first term.
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 05:10 PM
Dec 2015

A less antagonistic Clinton White House along with new leadership in Jerusalem is likely to drain much of the partisanship of the last few years out of the issue.

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
9. Great related analysis by Forward magazine: "Does Hillary Clinton Have a Haim Saban Problem?"
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 05:34 PM
Dec 2015
link; excerpt:

Haim Saban, one of Hillary Clinton’s top donors, may be aligned with the Democratic Party. But when it comes to Mideast politics, he’s far from a progressive.
...
Except Saban’s top priority isn’t a liberal vision of American life. It’s Israel. And he makes no secret of that. “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel,” Saban told the New Yorker in 2010.

Last week, Saban displayed a propensity all-too-common among right-leaning Israel advocates in the U.S.: a bit of anti-Muslim bigotry. In an interview, he rejected President Obama’s declaration that a religious test for refugees was “shameful.” Later, Saban, in a statement to the Washington Post, disavowed his push for a religious test and insisted that he “misspoke” — a dubious claim, if you ask me, though he might’ve legitimately been sorry he opened his mouth about the hot-button issue.
...
Yet Saban’s original comments included more than just advocating a blanket policy that Muslim refugees deserved “more scrutiny.” He also called for profiling and broader surveillance. He said civil liberties should be curtailed in a time of war—never mentioning that the U.S. seems to be locked in a never-ending war.

Divernan

(15,480 posts)
10. Powerful,meticulously detailed condemnation of Hillary's flouting the rule of law
Sat Dec 5, 2015, 05:50 PM
Dec 2015

It is certainly worth a read, although it leaves one feeling horrified at the thought of her dictating foreign policy. Truthout is a great source of reporting/opinion - I'm happy for Will Pitt that he has concentrated his efforts on his work there.

In today's world, more than ever, we need a strong system of international law, adhered to and enforced by all countries. We need a stronger United Nations. Hillary is headed in the opposite direction.

Here's the last paragraph from the link:

The United Nations and the Fourth Geneva Convention came into being in part as a result of the efforts of Democratic presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. That the Democratic Party may nominate someone who is willing to reject such basic tenets of international law is indicative of how far Democrats have gone in abandoning traditional liberal values.
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