July 24, 2000
Wall Street Journal
Editorial Page
More Outrage From Hillary
By Rachel Donadio, city editor of the Forward.
The phone was ringing when I got back to the office late on
Monday, after covering Hillary Clinton's appearance at Ellis
Island. Two calls, in close succession, from people with whom I
had never before spoken. Both callers expressed their outrage at
the allegations that Mrs. Clinton had used an anti-Semitic slur.
The callers defended her on the basis of their acquaintance with
her or their reading of her character. I actually asked the
callers why they had called me and how they knew I was following
this story for the Forward, and each gave answers that I remember
chiefly for their vagueness.
It turns out that each was specifically asked to call me and a
reporter for another Jewish newspaper by the Jewish liaison in
Mrs. Clinton's campaign for the Senate. This came out when a memo
from that official, Karen Adler, to Mrs. Clinton's Jewish
Advisory Group was leaked to various news outlets in the state,
including the Associated Press, which was the first to alert me.
And it also turns out that the memo specifically asked Mrs.
Clinton's advisory group to dissemble about whether they were
connected to the campaign. "It is important that you do not say
that you are calling because the campaign asked you to, but
because you are outraged with what was said about her," Ms. Adler
wrote.
Well, call me an old-fashioned sort, but this little episode
touches on the issue that I believe, after covering Mrs. Clinton
the past few months, is at the heart of the problems with her
campaign. It's an issue that bedevils her relations with more
than the Jewish community. It is at core a question of honesty
and trust. I, as well as the Forward, am in the camp that doesn't
really care what kind of things Mrs. Clinton says in private.
Unlike many dailies, the Forward was skeptical and wary of the
accusations of anti-Semitism, and wrote as much in this week's
editorial and in my lead story.
I happened to have sat out the second Clinton administration in
Italy, the last half working for the International Herald
Tribune. When I came to the Forward in May, I didn't arrive with
an ax to grind or with my senses dulled by years of American news
coverage. I started covering the Clinton campaign and reporting
what I found. And what I've found in the past two weeks is a
campaign intent on silencing any coverage that isn't celebratory.
This sentiment was most evident in Ms. Adler's memo to the Jewish
Advisory Group, as well as in an earlier memo that was leaked to
the New York Post last week. That memo, also from Ms. Adler,
complained about Mrs. Clinton's coverage in Jewish newspapers,
including the Forward, and suggested that this was why the
candidate was polling so poorly among Jewish voters. Blaming
Jewish newspapers, as if they had covered Mrs. Clinton any more
critically than the mainstream media and as if the media itself
were responsible for her poor showing, does not inspire trust in
Mrs. Clinton's campaign tactics. Nor does it inspire trust in
Mrs. Clinton.
The sentiment I hear expressed more often than any other is that
people don't trust the first lady. Hawks don't trust that she
will be a vocal enough advocate for a strong Israel. They cite
her calling for a Palestinian state in 1998, long before such a
proposal ever hit the negotiating table. They don't trust her
repudiation of that statement. They don't trust her statement on
Jerusalem. They cite the unfortunate photo op in Ramallah last
November when Mrs. Clinton embraced Suha Arafat just moments
after the first lady of Palestine had accused Israel of using
poison gas against Palestinians. They don't trust her explanation
that she waited a day to condemn the remarks due to a translation
error.
Yet the problem goes far beyond the Middle East. I doubt that
suburban centrists, who make up a significant part of the one
million Jewish voters in the state, are sitting at home with a
map of the West Bank, hinging their votes for Mrs. Clinton on the
kind of peace deal her husband helps negotiate. Yet it is these
largely Democratic suburban centrists who are the thorn in Mrs.
Clinton's side. They are Koch Jews from the outer boroughs,
families, parents and senior citizens for whom the real issue
isn't health care or gun control or even education, but rather
trust.
Many still don't trust Mrs. Clinton's motives in running for
Senate in a state she's never called home. Some Jewish women
wonder why she didn't up and leave her philandering husband. What
I sense is a growing swell of concern from Jewish voters, of all
religious denominations and political allegiances, who are simply
searching for candid answers from Mrs. Clinton. What is clear is
that Jewish voters are certainly willing to give Mrs. Clinton a
fair hearing, if only she would start talking on the level.
"It's difficult to correct what's already been done," Rabbi
Joseph Potasnik from Congregation Mt. Sinai, a synagogue in
liberal Brooklyn Heights, told me this week, speaking about the
blunders that have marred the Clinton campaign from day one. "I
think Hillary needs to have serious discussions with the Jewish
community to convince those who might vote for her that she does
have credibility and can be trusted," Mr. Potasnik said. "It's
the credibility question. That's what needs to be discussed. How
can we trust you? You tell us how we can."
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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