Bill Clinton Confessed He Meddled In Israel’s 1996 Elections
Former president Bill Clinton admitted that he tried to help Shimon Peres defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s 1996 general elections, in an interview on Channel 10 news to Israeli television.
Clinton acknowledged that he tried to help Peres win the election in a way that didn’t “overtly” implicate him, and that he did so because Peres was more committed than Netanyahu to the so-called peace process, which had suffered a huge blow with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin six months earlier.
Asked in the interview whether it would be “fair to say” that he “tried to help Shimon Peres to win the election,” Clinton replied: “That would be fair to say. I tried to do it in a way that didn’t overtly involve me.”
He explained: “I did try to be helpful to him because I thought he was more supportive of the peace process. And I tried to do it in a way that was consistent with what I believed to be in Israel’s interest, without saying anything about the difference in domestic polices, without anything else.”
When the victorious Netanyahu subsequently visited him at the White House, Clinton recalled, the new Israeli prime minister “wanted me to know that he knew I wasn’t for him and he beat us anyway.”
The former president laughed, then added: “And he was being very ‘Bibi’” (Netanyahu’s nickname).”
Despite polls indicating a victory for Peres, Netanyahu ended up narrowly winning the May 1996 vote, with many analysts saying a slew of Palestinian suicide bombings that hit the country turned the electorate toward the right.
“But, you know,” continued Clinton, “I realized that he was now the leader of the country and if I wanted to support the peace I had to find a way to work with him. I wasn’t so much angry as just bemused by the brashness with which he played his hand. But that’s who he is. He did a very good job of it.”
The right in Israel has accused the U.S. — and in particular Democratic presidents — with interfering with local elections. The last time the finger was pointed was during the 2015 elections when activists tied to the Obama administration were charged with trying to thwart another win for Netanyahu. The effort failed and Netanyahu kept the position he’s held since 2009.
Clinton said during the TV report that Netanyahu’s government doesn’t consider the Palestinians to be much of a threat under Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“By the time prime minister Netanyahu got back in office [in 2009] the security situation was markedly better on the West Bank because of President Abbas,” Clinton said.
“Now, the coalition that Prime Minister Netanyahu heads, I think they believe that the Palestinians are too weak to cause them any trouble. And the security seems to be working.”
“I still hope that someday, if some decent accommodation could be reached, that Israel would be even more prosperous,” he added.
Of course, Democrats can do whatever they want… Democrats don’t mind election interference when it’s their favorite candidates. Obama let the Russians interfere in our 2016 election because they were helping Hillary. And Trump still won!
However, Bill Clinton is quite hypocritical, isn’t it? People are up in arms because Russia tried it, but then think it is ok to do it ourselves? The Left is so pathetically hypocritical and thinks they can violate any law or decency/honor to promote their communistic agenda. No morals, no conscience.
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Natalie Dagenhardt is an American conservative writer who writes for Right Journalism! Natalie has described herself as a polemicist who likes to “stir up the pot,” and does not “pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do,” drawing criticism from the left, and sometimes from the right. As a passionate journalist, she works relentlessly to uncover the corruption happening in Washington. She is a “constitutional conservative”.
