PM Netanyahu corrects Secretary of State Clinton at AIPAC

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
23 March '10

Secretary of State Clinton sent a clear message to Israel in her AIPAC address that she and the Obama administration intend to continue with the "automatic pass" policy vis-a-vis official Palestinian compliance. That's "official" Palestinian compliance, since the verbiage can flow about "Palestinians" in general - while taking great care never to associate the criticism with the ruling Palestinian Fatah/PA leadership, this keeping Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of his team squeaky clean.

This dangerously destructive policy, that encourages Palestinian noncompliance, has a profound impact on the efficacy of third party supervision.

Simply put, since we already know that the United States has a "automatic pass" policy when it comes to official Palestinian compliance, it would be reckless and irresponsible to agree to an arrangement that hinged on the compliance assessment of the United States rather than leaving this ultimately up to the sovereign State of Israel itself.

So here is the line in Secretary of State Clinton's address to AIPAC, in which she bent over backwards to avoid criticizing the PA for an incident that the PA postponed during VP Biden's recent visit to avoid a PR fiasco. That's PA-Fatah postponed - not Hamas. But Mrs. Clinton's heavy blinders shield her from this truth:

"When a Hamas-controlled municipality glorifies violence and renames a square after a terrorist who murdered innocent Israelis, it insults the families on both sides who have lost loves ones over the years in this conflict."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
AIPAC Conference March 22, 2010
www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/03/138722.htm
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And here is how Prime Minister Netanyahu responded:

"Regrettably, the Palestinian Authority has also continued incitement against Israel.

A few days ago, a public square near Ramallah was named after a terrorist who murdered 37 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. The Palestinian Authority did nothing to prevent it."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
AIPAC Conference March 22, 2010
www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/PMSpeaks/speechaipac220310.htm
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If anything, Mr. Netanyahu was generous in understating the involvement of Fatah-PA. Its not that they did nothing to prevent it, they promoted it and were intimately involved in it.

So now we come to an interesting challenge for friends of Israel - and organizations that are friends of Israel.

Do they accept Mrs. Clinton's heavy blinders wording - and in turn the "see no evil hear no evil speak no evil" approach towards the PA.

Or do they reject such obfuscation and call for Washington to put an end to its "automatic pass" approach with the PA.
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