Posted by
Boris Tiraspolsky on Friday, September 24, 2010 2:36:32 AM
Speaking at a round table meeting during the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference on Tuesday September 21, 2010, the former US President Bill Clinton denying any reason and forgetting decency reportedly said that Israel is "different" now due to high influx of new Russian-Jewish immigrants and settlers and therefore, “Russian Israelis” key obstacle to peace.
"Bringing reason and decency back to the discussion concerning Israel"
Compiled by Boris Tiraspolsky
Former President Bill Clinton said: "An increasing number of the young people in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] are the children of Russians and settlers, the hardest-core people against a division of the land. This presents a staggering problem. It's a different Israel. Sixteen percent of Israelis speak Russian. They've just got there, it's their country, they've made a commitment to the future there. They can't imagine any historical or other claims that would justify dividing it. Natan Sharansky was the only Israeli minister to reject the peace agreement that I proposed at the Camp David Summit in 2000. I said, ‘Natan, what is the deal' [about not supporting the peace deal], Natan said, ‘I can't vote for this, I'm Russian… I come from one of the biggest countries in the world to one of the smallest. You want me to cut it in half. No, thank you'."
Comment by Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident turned Knesset member and cabinet minister: "A report of President Clinton's comments has been brought to my attention which I hope is inaccurate. I appreciate President Clinton's commitment to peace and talent for political analysis, however…I was never at Camp David and never had the opportunity to discuss the negotiations there with President Clinton. It may be that he had in mind our conversations at Wye Plantation years before, where I expressed my serious doubts, given the dictatorial nature of the PA regime, whether Mr. Arafat would be willing to bring freedom to his people, an essential element of a sustainable peace."
Comment by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "Remarks attributed to Bill Clinton are distressing. As a friend of Israel, Clinton certainly knows that the immigrants from the former Soviet U-nion have contributed and are making a great contribution to the strengthening and development of the IDF and the state of Israel. Only a strong Israel can establish solid and safe peace.”
Comment by Yisrael Beitenu, a party comprised mainly of Russian immigrants: "It seems that Clinton has forgotten that it was the [former] chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat who refused to Clinton's peace offer, which included unbearable concessions on the part of Israel. The people of Israel are one, and the Russian immigrants, as the other citizens of Israel, yearn for true peace based on recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people."
Comment by Jose Maria Aznar, the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004: "Stop this non-sense of making Israel responsible for all the problems in the region, if not beyond? Enough of the short sightedness which refuses to see Israel as a corner stone of our Western civilization? We do believe that far from it, it is vital. For America, for the West, for Israel. And for our children and grandchildren and the world they will inherit. Because there is still right and wrong in this complicated world. And if we allow those fundamentals to be blurred and eroded and confused, we will all be dangerously adrift. Defending Israel today means strengthening the West, standing up for our values, and their right to exist as a normal country, a fellow democracy and a celebrated ally in our great western alliance. I hope that you will share our vision, and will help us in bringing reason and decency back to the discussion concerning Israel."