Posted on 12/16/2001 6:30:05 PM PST by DainBramage
Bill Clinton: We will never let Palestinians get rid of Israel
By Raine Marcus
LONDON (December 17) - Former US President Bill Clinton has helped the Jewish National Fund raise $1.75 million to build a reservoir near Tze'elim in the Negev, and to reward him, the organization is to name it the Clinton Reservoir.
Clinton spoke to British Jewry at three events last week, in Glasgow, Manchester, and London. He talked of his disappointment at the failure of the Middle East peace process and his hopes to fight world terror, at a JNF centenary dinner in London before some 1,600 guests, who paid $250-per-head.
Clinton has also been invited to speak in Israel by Nes Technologies, headed by former finance ministry director-general Aharon Fogel, for a reported fee of $100,000.
To a clapping audience, the smiling Clinton said: "The purpose of terror is not military victory, it is to scare us into changing our behavior by making us afraid of today, afraid of tomorrow, afraid of each other. So it cannot win unless we become its unwitting accomplices, unless we give it permission. If you see the endurance of the State of Israel, you see what I think is the normal response of people of faith and courage to terror: It steels the spine, even if it breaks the heart.
"There are those who say there can be no Palestine, unless there is no Israel," he continued. "They don't want a Palestinian state as Oslo said, alongside Israel - they want a Palestinian state instead of Israel. So we have to say 'Look, we will never, ever, ever agree to let you get rid of Israel, not ever, but we will agree to share the future with you.' "
Referring to negotiations between former prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat at Camp David in 2000, Clinton said the Palestinians made a mistake in not accepting Barak's far-reaching offer.
"I thought they were going to sign it, and I had reason to believe they would.
"Where are we going from here? The best thing to do is to start with the Mitchell Commission recommendations that both Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon and Chairman Arafat say they agree with, and then I think we ought to look at what Chairman Arafat and then-prime minister Netanyahu agreed to at Wye River with the help of Jordan's King Hussein." Clinton's administration chased al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden for years, he said, and fought worldwide terrorism by thwarting several attacks.
"We bombed one of Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan and a chemical weapons facility in Sudan. We rolled up a lot of his cells in Europe with the help of British intelligence and others. We tried very hard to get him before he could do what was done on September 11. Far more attacks have been prevented than have occurred," he said
Still, he added, "We have more to do to protect our basic infrastructure and our computer networks, more to do to break up the money networks that keep the terrorists going."
Welcoming Clinton, JNF president Gail Seal said that Clinton's "hopes for a peaceful future have inspired us all and have been an appropriate message for an organization that has a deep-seated love for Israel."
After describing 100 years of JNF history, Seal called on British Jews to express their solidarity with Israel by visiting the country, as Israel is suffering a heavy blow o its tourism industry.
Ahem, excuse me, but most people believe that was an asprin factory in Sudan. I seem to recall the U.S. is currently being sued over it. Although I regret this for America, I hope Clinton is found guilty.
LOL! They clapped. Big whoopee.
He so sad and irrelevant. Does he know that Blair does't love him anymore?
A four-bagger I think.
Well it may not be a total waste.
But ole Marcus Reines sure seems to don't he.
They were probably recruited by the Soviets at the same time at Oxford.
Any FreePers out there who wants to start a new thread entitled, "Ten Ways to Silence Slick"?
When will this piece of garbage realize that he is as irrelevant as Yassar Arrafat?
JERUSALEM (March 19) - A year-long rift between the London office of the Jewish National Fund and its parent organization in Jerusalem has led to the British branch breaking away.
In a letter faxed Wednesday from London to JNF world chairman Shlomo Gravetz, JNF-UK president Gail Seal charged that Jerusalem was trying to run the UK operation, and even shut it down.
"This will have consequences well beyond those affecting our respective organizations and may affect the charitable status of other Israel-oriented charities in the UK," she wrote.
Seal said the situation was one which she and her board "are no longer prepared to tolerate and with deep regret I must advise you that we are, with immediate effect, formalizing the steps we have already taken to fund-raise for Israel through other avenues."
This move highlights a divide between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, with more communities not donating to mainstream organizations.
JNF-UK, which has been a contributor to the JNF for the last 90 of the organization's 98 years, is Britain's third-largest Jewish charity, having raised $8 million last year.
JNF has been the organization through which world Jewry acquired land in Palestine since the turn of the century and still owns some 17 percent of Israel's land.
Gravetz yesterday denied the UK branch's accusations, saying JNF-UK "has been trying to alter the relationship between the office in London and the office in Israel, that gives preference to the office in London. It was trying to transfer the center of power to London."
This, he said in a statement, was something "that the JNF will not agree to in any way, that there will be any other center than the JNF in Jerusalem. Any attempt to transfer the center to another country points to an attempt at political manipulations that is unacceptable."
The dispute between the parent organization and its affiliate began last year, with a dispute over emissaries sent by the JNF to London. JNF-UK charged that two of the three emissaries were operating in a way "detrimental to our ongoing day-to-day operation in the UK. Despite numerous requests over the years to persuade Jewish National Fund to recall those emissaries, we found ourselves in the unparalleled position of having to take unilateral action to safeguard the JNF database and other confidential information."
In January, JNF-UK barred the two Israeli representatives from entering its London office. The JNF has demanded an apology.
Thanks. I needed that....
Ever read Lucky Bastard, postulates just that scenario and continues to worse, all too close to reality
As for naming a reservoir after him: I thought they already named that sea over there about Him. Whatis it again?
That would be the DEAD sea. as in, incapable of supporting life.
Reminds me of how he tried to "save the Constitution" by not resigning and fighting his impeachment. (did a little bombing then too, as I recall) What a sick man.
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