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Correctly rips HRC on speech, then gets to 2016.

December 4, 2012
Mighty Morphin Hillary By MAUREEN
DOWD<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/maureendowd/index.html>

WASHINGTON

Everyone expected Hillary to lower the boom on Bibi Friday night.

The bullying Israeli prime minister is fond of demanding that America set
red lines on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But he blithely stuck a finger in
the eye of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton Friday and went
over a red line for successive American administrations: Israel gave the
White House only a few hours’ notice that it was defying the U.S. and
planning new settlements in the most sensitive territory east of Jerusalem,
a move that Washington fears could obliterate any prospect of a two-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“If such a project were to go beyond blueprints,” Jodi Rudoren and Mark
Landler wrote in The Times, “it could prevent the creation of a viable,
contiguous Palestinian state” by closing off the West Bank from East
Jerusalem.

The brazen and counterproductive action, designed to punish the
Palestinians, flouted the Obama administration, which had Israel’s back
twice recently: in the clash with Hamas over Gaza and, despite increased
diplomatic isolation, in opposing the successful vote to upgrade Palestine
to a nonmember observer state in the United Nations.

The provocation preceded Hillary’s speech at the Saban Forum at the Willard
Hotel here Friday night. The conference on the Middle East is run by Haim
Saban, an Israeli-American media and entertainment mogul from Beverly Hills
who is best known for three things: bringing the Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers from Japan to America, being a vocal supporter of Israel and
lavishing the Clintons with donations. (He gave $5 million to the Clinton
presidential library, $5 million to the Clinton foundation and avidly
supported Hillary’s ’08 bid against Obama.)

Last year, at the Saban forum, Hillary infuriated some Israeli ministers
when she said she was alarmed about the rights of women and
“antidemocratic” bills proposed by far-right members of the Netanyahu
government. She talked about her dismay at learning that some religious
Israeli soldiers walked out of events where women were singing and that
some buses in Jerusalem operated under gender apartheid — “reminiscent of
Rosa Parks,” as she put it. So, many in the audience this time assumed that
the outgoing secretary of state would lay down the law to Bibi on
settlements, and they were surprised when she pulled her punches and made
only a mild reference, eschewing the word “settlements.”

“These activities,” she said, “set back the cause of a negotiated peace.”

She said the Palestinians could have a state “as old as I am” if in 1947
they had made “the right decision” or if they had “worked with my husband”
in 2000. And she urged Israel to be “generous” toward the Palestinians. But
she didn’t whack Bibi, as he deserved. Many there came away assuming that
it was the beginning of Hillary’s 2016 campaign, that she was thinking
about her future rather than her present. Her reasoning, they reckoned, was
this: If Obama doesn’t want to have anything to do with the settlement
issue, if he’d rather spend his time in Myanmar than Israel, then why
should she stir up trouble with Israel and her pro-Israel supporters on her
way out the door?

And aside from the dog that didn’t bark, there was the video that roared. A
film that introduced Hillary featured leaders and Israeli pols — including
Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres and Tzipi Livni — gushing over the
secretary.

In a dispatch headlined “Hillary Is Running,” David Remnick, The New Yorker
editor, wrote: “The film was like an international endorsement four years
in advance of the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.”

How can we focus on Barry’s transition when Hillary’s is so much more
riveting? Far from being depleted and ready for a spa, she’s energetically
rounding up the usual suspects. She “took steps to solidify her
relationships with some Democrats by sending hand-signed notes to
candidates who got bested in close Congressional races,” offering them
encouragement and succor, The New York Observer’s politics blog reports.
That provided a marked contrast to Obama, who did not bother to rally
Democrats in his acceptance speech.

Secretary Clinton also reached out for the first time to reunite her
Irish-American fund-raisers and top supporters. IrishCentral.com reports
that Kris Balderston, a Hillary aide at State, sent invitations to several
prominent Irish Democrats who raised millions for her Senate and
presidential runs to accompany the top diplomat to events in Dublin and
Belfast this week. Though other possible 2016 contenders, like Joe Biden,
Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, have Irish connections,
Hillary is the cushla, or darling.

“I hope this means Hillary is running,” said Niall O’Dowd, the publisher of
IrishCentral.com and other Irish publications in New York, who is joining
the secretary in Ireland at her invitation. “She has enormous strength in
the Irish-American community because of the Clintons’ massive role in
bringing peace to Northern Ireland. She’s a country mile ahead of every
other contender with the Irish.”


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Alexander Snyder-Mackler
(302) 598-867