Posted on 03/09/2006 5:05:28 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
The United States’ relationship with Israel will be “solid for a long time to come,” former U.S. President Bill Clinton told supporters of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto on Sunday night.
“No matter what happens, we will always be there by Israel’s side,” the 42nd American president told some 1,800 people attending the sold-out Spirit of Hope Benefit at the Toronto Performing Arts Centre.
“We’re not about to allow Hamas or anyone else destroy Israel.”
In a 40-minute extemporaneous talk that was warmly received, Clinton touched on many topics, including the Middle East, the growing interdependence of the world, and the deadly riots that followed publication of Danish editorial cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
Among those is attendance were Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, Toronto Mayor David Miller, federal NDP Leader Jack Layton and Ontario Opposition Leader John Tory.
Clinton said he “sympathized” with the reason Palestinians voted for Hamas in recent parliamentary elections because the average Palestinian is worse off now than a decade ago.
“They cast a vote for something more immediate and tangible. I get that. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore a core commitment to terror and the destruction of Israel.”
Clinton earned applause when he said the west should suspend financial aid to Hamas until it renounces terror and recognizes Israel. Democracy, he said, “is more than about winning a race. It’s also about the rule of law, minority rights and the renunciation of extra-legal violence against civilians.
But there’s reason for hope, he said.
The former president cited a poll taken one week after the election that showed 73 per cent of Palestinians wanted Hamas to renounce terror and 82 per cent wanted it to make peace with Israel.
“These are big numbers,” he said. “Most Palestinian people want to work this out.”
Only four per cent wanted sharia law in the territories, he noted.
Hamas’ offer to have international humanitarian aid monitored should also be spurned, Clinton said.
“It’s like saying, ‘I’ll spend your money and I’ll get somebody else to buy guns and make bombs.’ That’s a bad deal. I support the position of all governments who decline to participate in this.”
The “whole purpose” of the peace process is to guarantee both sides security, and “we can’t go down that road unless that’s part of the deal.”
Clinton, who was president from 1992 to 2000, said he was “shocked and profoundly disappointed” over recent riots in the Muslim world in response to the Danish Muhammad cartoons, not because he doesn’t believe in freedom of the press, “but because I would never do anything that blasphemes someone else’s faith.”
He said the first person who called him to speak out against the cartoons was Edgar Bronfman, head of the World Jewish Congress.
Clinton said the caricatures were a “perfect opportunity” for dialogue with Muslims, but one that was “colossally blown.”
He also noted a rise in Muslim-on-Muslim violence, beginning with last November’s deadly bombings of hotels in Amman, Jordan, where “100 per cent of the victims were Muslim.”
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Sunni leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, took credit for the blasts, and Clinton said the act was an expression of a basic disagreement al-Zarqawi has with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
He said al-Zarqawi intended to launch a new front in the war against infidels by first killing all Shia Muslims and moderate Sunnis, then training his bombs on the West.
Clinton had kind words for Canada, calling it a “fully textured democracy.”
Turning to Iran, the former president said there are “no easy options.” Iran is much bigger and much more powerful than Iraq and represents a “very dangerous situation,” he said.
Western powers “have to be very firm but also not confuse the legitimate desires of the people in Iran to improve their lives with the illegitimate desire of the president to deny the historical reality of Holocaust.
“In other words, this is not going to be an easy walk into the future.”
On the other hand, Clinton believes the 21st century will be less bloody than the 20th was.
“We have to faithful to our values, be realistic about understanding where people are coming from [and] and always be willing to put ourselves in others’ shoes.”
But he warned against religious extremism.
“All these people who are using religion as an excuse to give them political power and legitimize terror, every one of them is a committing fundamental error.
“Whether you’re a Jew, Muslim or Christian, particularly if you’re part of the monotheistic tradition, it is a heresy to claim to be in possession of the absolute truth. If you’re in possession of the absolute truth and you can turn it into an absolutely true political program, which gives you heaven on Earth, what do you need God for?”
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center called Clinton “a great friend of Israel and the Jewish community.”
Clinton, it was noted, presented famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.
Organizers said the evening raised $1.3 million for Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.
I really wish this reprobate had gone to prison, really.
Bill Clinton will always be behind Israel.
That's because you have to get behind someone to stab them in the back.
Clinton is no friend of Israel and never has been.
Oh please. The two intifadas, and the hundreds of Israeli deaths resulting from them, were a biproduct of Bill's pathological need for recognition.
What's all this "we" business? Does Clinton think he's speaking for all Americans, or that he's actually in a position to make any decisions on behalf of Americans, or maybe he just means he and Hillary?
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He's going to be another Carter. He'll be vomiting publicly for decades.
There's a Jew Born Every Minute...
Pray for W and Our Troops
What he says is right; when he says it is cowardice.
"“It’s like saying, ‘I’ll spend your money and I’ll get somebody else to buy guns and make bombs.’ That’s a bad deal. I support the position of all governments who decline to participate in this.”"
Well he is right about that.
Can we get up a collection to send him fresh and hot Cheeseburgers and fries every day.....please......(I want him to GO AWAY sooooo bad!)
Isn't it funny how some people what to blame the Palestinians?
You aren't the only one.
Cute. However, Ariel Sharon (and with him the Israeli people) eventually came to the conclusion that the Oslo and Wye River processes were a disaster for Israel.
Anyone could have seen that Arafat would use terror and violence as a negotiating tool, but our boy Bill insisted that Arafat was a legitimate partner for peace.
Yes, genius, the blood is on Bill's hands.
"... except when I was president and needed Arafat for my Nobel Peace Prize."
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