Israel Matzav

Hillary Clinton is wrong (again)

Hillary Clinton is wrong. There was a deal between George Bush and Ariel Sharon on continued construction of Israeli 'settlements' in Judea and Samaria. Moreover, in order to get that deal, the Bush administration forced Sharon to go much further than he wanted to in leaving Gaza and four towns in Samaria. Sharon did not want to abandon the Philadelphi corridor (the border between Egypt and Gaza, which is full of weapons tunnels today) - the Bush administration forced him to abandon it. And the expulsion of Jews from four towns in Samaria was the Bush administration's idea, just to show it could be done.

Now, the Obama administration wants to take back the quid pro quo that Sharon got for taking those actions. Here's Elliott Abrams in the Wall Street Journal.

In recent weeks, American officials have denied that any agreement on settlements existed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated on June 17 that "in looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements. That has been verified by the official record of the administration and by the personnel in the positions of responsibility."

These statements are incorrect. Not only were there agreements, but the prime minister of Israel relied on them in undertaking a wrenching political reorientation -- the dissolution of his government, the removal of every single Israeli citizen, settlement and military position in Gaza, and the removal of four small settlements in the West Bank. This was the first time Israel had ever removed settlements outside the context of a peace treaty, and it was a major step.

It is true that there was no U.S.-Israel "memorandum of understanding," which is presumably what Mrs. Clinton means when she suggests that the "official record of the administration" contains none. But she would do well to consult documents like the Weissglas letter, or the notes of the Aqaba meeting, before suggesting that there was no meeting of the minds.

Mrs. Clinton also said there were no "enforceable" agreements. This is a strange phrase. How exactly would Israel enforce any agreement against an American decision to renege on it? Take it to the International Court in The Hague?

Regardless of what Mrs. Clinton has said, there was a bargained-for exchange. Mr. Sharon was determined to break the deadlock, withdraw from Gaza, remove settlements -- and confront his former allies on Israel's right by abandoning the "Greater Israel" position to endorse Palestinian statehood and limits on settlement growth. He asked for our support and got it, including the agreement that we would not demand a total settlement freeze.

For reasons that remain unclear, the Obama administration has decided to abandon the understandings about settlements reached by the previous administration with the Israeli government. We may be abandoning the deal now, but we cannot rewrite history and make believe it did not exist.

It's actually quite clear why the Obama administration wants to abandon those understandings. Obama and his advisers are a bunch of Jew-haters. But we warned of that in 2007 and American Jewry jerked its collective knee and voted for the Obumbler anyway.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:41 AM