Democratic presidential candidate hopes nuke deal in works will ‘put a lid’ on Tehran’s ‘atomic weapons program’
Times of Israel
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday said that Iran poses an “existential threat” to Israel, and that she hoped the US and world powers would strike a deal which curbs Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Clinton addressed 850 people at an outdoor amphitheater at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. The former secretary of state touched on foreign policy and the upcoming deadline for negotiations with Iran over the country’s nuclear program. She said she hoped the US would “get a deal that puts a lid on Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” but cautioned that it was “too soon” to know if that was possible.
Nonetheless, the presidential hopeful said Iran would still pose problems because of its sponsorship of terrorism and the “existential threat” it poses to Israel.
The US and world powers are locked in negotiations with Iranian diplomats to reach a final agreement to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, with a new overtime deadline set for July 7.
Earlier in the day, Clinton suggested to potential Jewish donors in closed-door meetings that she would be a better president for Israel than incumbent Barack Obama, Politico reported.
The report claimed that at a New York fundraiser last week, Clinton told a group of mostly Jewish donors that she would be able to mend the fractured relationship between Washington and Jerusalem.
While she defended President Obama against accusations that he was responsible for a deterioration in ties between Israel and the US, she noted that “diplomacy is all about personal relationships, and I’ve got my own relationships.”
She hinted at her 20-year ties to Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose rapport with Obama has been famously unsmooth.
Obama’s rocky relationship with Israel and its leadership has been in the headlines again in the past few weeks due to accusations by former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren that the president is to blame for the poor state of bilateral ties.
Ahead of last week’s release of his book “Ally,” on the Israel-US relationship, Oren penned several opinion pieces that received mixed reactions from US political figures and the Jewish community, including “How Obama abandoned Israel” in the Wall Street Journal.
He also gave a lengthy interview to the Times of Israel in which he echoed charges in “Ally” to the effect that aspects of US-Israel ties are “in tatters” because of the president. In that interview, Oren highlighted Clinton’s “empathy” for Israel and her “rapport” with Netanyahu.
Asked by donors about Oren’s claims regarding Obama, Clinton would only say: “I know Michael well, but I haven’t read the book.”
Democratic donor Jay Jacobs, describing a gathering in Long Island, said Clinton had stressed “in no uncertain terms her full and fervent support of the state of Israel and the defense of the state of Israel.”
Politico noted that Clinton was deeply interested in securing the donations of certain wealthy American Jews, which would provide a significant boost to her campaign.
It also said that the presidential contender’s solid track record on Israel has given the Jewish community good reason to trust her.
“Hillary has a lot of credibility and support in the Jewish community,” Jacobs said. “It’s broad and deep. People understand that she has fought and has been there as an advocate.”
The article examined Clinton’s attitude towards the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, which has largely been a “wait and see” approach: she supports the talks, but says no deal is better than a bad one.
But it also noted that when it comes to voting in 2016, Iran will not be high on the list of American’s concerns.
“Do people in my community talk about the Iran deal? Sure. But is it affecting their support for Hillary Clinton? No,” said Democratic consultant Steve Rabinowitz. “Iran certainly will — and already has — become a Republican talking point, but it will not move three votes or $3.”
Hillary Clinton and Benjamin Netanyahu, July 2012. (Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool/Flash90)
In his Times of Israel interview, ex-envoy Oren, now a Kulanu MK, said Clinton “gets it” where Israel is concerned.
“I had a lot of hours working with Hillary. She’s an incredibly formidable intellect, physically robust. She’s of that generation that still has that warm place in her heart (for Israel). Her formational experience with Israel was the Six Day War and not, say, the First Intifada. But we’d still have to move toward her. We’d have to meet her halfway. If she were president — and this is all highly hypothetical — and we retained the status quo (on the Palestinians), we would still be in a very difficult situation,” Oren said.
Knesset member Michael Oren of the Kulanu party, March 29, 2015 (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
Existential threat my ass! The idea that the Zionists, armed with nuclear weapons, with a nuclear armed submarine fleet off the coast of Iran, the strongest armed forces in the region backed by the strongest armed forces in the world could be shaking in their boots over a country with no nuclear weapons, who’s navy is a fleet of speedboats, an air force that can’t fly because they have no spare parts is beyond laughable, it is fall on the floor holding your guts hilarious.
The reason the Zionists and the US want to destroy Iran is because Iran does not have a central bank controlled by the Rothchilds. Islam forbids usury, compound interest is the lifeblood of the Rothchilds. Iran wants to sell oil in other than US currency and also wants to open its own oil bourse. Presently all the oil in the world is traded in two bourses, one in New York and the other in London, England. All trade is conducted in US dollars which means any country wanting to trade in oil must have a reserve of greenbacks. If the hegemony of the US dollar is broken all those greenbacks will come flooding back to the US like so much wallpaper. Saddam traded oil for other than US dollars, the US killed him, destroyed his country and stole his money. Gadaffi traded oil for gold and wanted to make the African Dinar the currency for the proposed United States of Africa. the US killed him, destroyed his country and stole his gold.
The way money has become the most deciding factor in US elections, and the way presidential candidates all prostitute themselves to Jews for money is a disgrace. US has no moral right to criticize elections is any other country.
Unfortunately there is no free or independent political party or candidate in US. Both parties are corrupt and puppets of big corporations and the Jews. Unfortunately majority of American people are either brainwashed or careless about such facts…
Most people in the US are suffering but don’t know or don’t see the roots of their political and economic problems. Since they are brainwashed, every election they vote for the same corrupt party and this story repeats every 4 years…