'U.S., Israel share values'
U.S. Senator Hilary Clinton provides support for Israel during speech at AIPAC conference; says Europe must label Hizbullah as terror organization
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton gave unflinching support to Israel, the disengagement plan and U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq in a speech Tuesday that some said could be a blueprint for a presidential run.
Clinton, a New York Democrat, received sustained applause from 5,000 members of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC for equating support of the Jewish state to support for American values.
In fact, much of her speech echoed the theme pressed by AIPAC during the three-day conference: “Israel. An American Value.”
“There are deep and lasting bonds between the U.S. and Israel,” Clinton said. “These are more than shared interests. They are bonds forged in a common struggle for human rights and freedom, bonds that predate the creation of the state of Israel, and even the creation of the U.S.”
She said people in the Middle East should look to Israel if they want to see what democracy looks like.
'A tremendous risk'
Clinton steered clear of overtly political or specific issues in her talk, but called on the Palestinian Authority to end incitement, hatred and anti-Semitism in its schoolbooks. She described use of such material as tantamount to “child abuse.”
She said Israel’s disengagement plan from Gaza is a “tremendous risk” that must be supported.
She said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is due in Washington for meetings with President George W. Bush on Thursday, must “dismantle the structures of terror the Palestinian leadership has employed for so long.”
Abbas must be held responsible, Clinton said.
“As Israel’s democratic government takes these steps (toward disengagement), and we support them, there has to be reciprocity on the other side as well,” she said.
Funding for Islamic Jihad, Hamas must be severed
Cinton said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable, not just to Israel and the U.S., but to the entire world.
She said Europe must be convinced to designate Syrian-backed Hizbullah of Lebanon as a terrorist organization, which European countries have been reluctant to do.
Europe must also work to cut off funding for Islamic Jihad and Hamas, she said.
Clinton, whose one-time embrace of Suha Arafat angered Jewish communities, has worked from before her 2000 election as a U.S. senator from New York to mend ties with and show support for Israel and Jewish causes.
New York has America's largest Jewish population, nearly 10 percent of the state's 19 million residents.
Clinton has built up a large warchest for her 2006 re-election bid, and has said she is not now running for U.S. president. However, Democratic and political eyes have been on her from the first day she and former President Bill Clinton announced their move to a suburb of New York City upon the ending of his eight years as president in early 2001.
