Hillary Clinton Uses Meeting with Israeli Hostage Families to Attack Netanyahu

Former Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton used a meeting with the families of Israeli hostages Thursday to attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, prompting criticism that it was a “revolting, disgusting” thing for her to do.

As the Israeli news website Ynet reported:

Clinton also urged relatives of the hostages to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to those present at the meeting, she told the families that Netanyahu is only busy with “politics and personal political survival,” and that Knesset seats are of more interest to this government than the hostages.
“As long as the hostages are not the main and primary target for Israel, then everything that I or President Biden say or do is of little value,” Clinton told them, according to participants in the meeting.

Since the beginning of the war, Clinton has been at the forefront of advocacy and support for Israel. At the meeting with the family members, she did not spare criticism of Netanyahu and his government. According to them, Clinton said she knew about significant efforts to bring about a “Christmas deal,” but clarified that ultimately the decision-makers are the Israeli government and Hamas. She promised to continue to do everything in her power to make such a deal happen.

Democrats have been obsessed with removing Netanyahu for decades, largely because he tends to oppose Democratic Party policies in the Middle East (and usually turns out to be right). President Bill Clinton openly intervened in the Israeli elections in 1999 to support Netanyahu’s opponent. Netanyahu, who returned to office in 2009, publicly opposed President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and has opposed President Joe Biden’s effort to restore the corrupt, radical Palestinian Authority to Gaza.

While Israelis have set politics aside during the war, and President Joe Biden has been cordial with Netanyahu for the past few months, after shunning him for more than half a year, Democrats continue to obsess about, and attack, the Israeli prime minister.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) even attacked Netanyahu during a speech about antisemitism in the Senate last month, saying Netanyahu encouraged “militant” settlers in the West Bank, a false claim that has nothing to do with the Gaza war.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.