Bibi gets the bum's rush
BARNES, FRED
Bibi Gets the Bum's Rush by Fred Barnes White House press secretary Mike McCurry told reporters on April 7 that President Clinton and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu get along "almost in...
...Of course, Clinton can't push the unity government idea publicly...
...There are many explanations, none entirely believable...
...The president regards Netanyahu as a contemporary...
...This is a very strong and important message from Arafat," said state Department spokesman Nicholas Burns...
...Clinton, after all, did everything he could last year to keep Netanyahu from being elected...
...Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard...
...Strange...
...When Netanyahu visited the White House in February, he brought his wife and kids...
...What makes Clinton so wary of criticizing Arafat...
...And as often as not, the Clinton administration is at odds with Netanyahu on Middle East questions...
...The Clinton administration did just that last week when it asked Netanyahu to make confidence-building gestures toward Arafat (approve the Gaza airport, allow safe passage between Gaza and the West Bank, etc...
...He had no critical words for Arafat...
...One is that criticizing Arafat would strengthen the hand of more militant Palestinian groups like Hamas...
...If the shoe fits...
...A week later, at a press conference with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Clinton took exception once more to Har Homa...
...The administration would be dismissed as "a shill for the Labor guys...
...In this way, Clinton and his team of Middle East negotiators could reunite with their favorite Israeli politicians despite the decision of the Israeli electorate to deny Labor a working majority...
...And while administration officials (not Clinton) said Arafat must do more to impede terrorism, they also noted approvingly his umpteenth promise to encourage followers to renounce violence...
...It suggests that Israel is the chief roadblock to peace and puts the Jewish state on the defensive...
...And it creates pressure for Netanyahu, not Arafat, to make concessions...
...Bibi Gets the Bum's Rush by Fred Barnes White House press secretary Mike McCurry told reporters on April 7 that President Clinton and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu get along "almost in a brotherly way...
...Yet McCurry had a point...
...Private pressure, we are told, works better with Arafat...
...It is clear that Arafat has been unwilling to control terror," Gingrich said...
...It is extraordinarily dangerous to always impose the burden on those who are your friends because you're too timid to tell the truth to those who are your enemies...
...If we did, it's dead," says a White House official...
...Meanwhile, after a bombing in Tel Aviv killed four Israelis on March 21, the State Department disputed Netanyahu's contention that Arafat had given a "green light" to terrorists...
...One American leader is willing to attack Arafat...
...Clinton, by the way, did not ask Netanyahu to stop construction at Har Homa...
...Netanyahu said he would consider these, but not immediately, since that would reward Palestinian terrorism...
...The truth is that if the administration were to criticize Arafat and acknowledge in public that he is at least partly responsible for the breakdown in peace talks, it would lose leverage—with Netanyahu...
...The Clinton administration is so far from Gingrich's position that it is now pushing privately for Netanyahu to form a "unity" government with the dovish Labor party...
...Again, no unkind words about Palestinian misbehavior...
...The bonhomie doesn't do Netanyahu (or Lott) any good...
...Clinton never upbraids him in public or brings up his unfulfilled commitments...
...When Arafat visited the White House in March, neither Clinton nor administration aides made any public comment about Arafat's shortcomings in complying with the Oslo accords...
...It destroys confidence in Israel's intentions and "builds mistrust," Clinton said...
...House Speaker Newt Gingrich said all the things Clinton won't in a speech last week before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee...
...But if that is true, why does Arafat get testy when told privately he must strip the Palestinian charter of its pledge to destroy Israel, as Oslo requires...
...Clinton's line is: "We ought to have zero tolerance for terrorism...
...The unequal treatment of Netanyahu and Arafat matters because it sets the moral terms of the Arab-Israeli struggle on an unfavorable basis for Israel and Netanyahu...
...On the contrary, when the president appeared with Arafat at the White House on March 3, he joined Arafat in zinging Netanyahu's government for building the Har Homa apartment complex in East Jerusalem...
...It prompts reporters to ask questions like this one directed at Clinton in March: Given Netanyahu's decision to build at Har Homa, "can you then blame the Palestinians if they should sort of revolt...
...Clinton talks to Netanyahu just like he talks to Trent Lott," says McCurry—directly, informally, familiarly...
...Clinton responded that "it would be a terrible mistake for Palestinians to resort to violence...
...The president is hardly reluctant to criticize Netanyahu's actions publicly...
...He doesn't get specific about who doesn't have zero tolerance now...
...But Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, with whom Clinton is not chummy, is another matter...
...Now, however, a White House official concedes Arafat had at least "flashed an amber light," and an unnamed offical says Arafat shouldn't have released a Hamas terrorist just prior to the bombing...
...And frankly, when the Clinton-Gore administration treats with moral equivalence Palestinian violence and Israeli housing, they undermine Israel's security...
...When they conferred in April, Netanyahu asked about Clinton's knee and got a long explanation about the injury...
Vol. 2 • April 1997 • No. 31
