HAPPY 60th ISRAEL! FROM SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 8, 2008
Contact: Press Office, 703-875-1271 press@hillaryclinton.com

Statement by Senator Hillary Clinton on the Occasion of Israel’s 60th Anniversary

I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the people of Israel on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment as a state and homeland for the Jewish people, and I join all the friends of Israel who celebrate today with joy and pride.

Emerging after the tragedy of the Holocaust, the Jewish State was reborn after two thousand years, fulfilling the biblical prophecy of a return to Zion. Since then, in just three score years, Israel has welcomed Jewish exiles from Europe, the Arab world, Africa, and the former Soviet Union.

From my first trip to Israel in 1982 to my most recent visit in 2005, I have seen for myself Israel’s achievements – and its challenges. The people of Israel, proud and free and always triumphing in the face of adversity, have built a strong and vibrant democracy, a diverse and rich society, and an innovative and thriving economy.

Yet today, even as we celebrate all that Israel has achieved, we know that the Jewish state is still not safe. In every generation, Israel faces serious challenges to its security and threats to its existence. And just as the United States recognized Israel at birth, and has always stood by Israel when its survival and well-being were challenged, so too do the American people stand by Israel today, united by shared values and strong bonds of friendship.

As President of the United States, I will be proud to continue and strengthen these bonds, so that the State of Israel will continue to grow, from generation to generation, in security and peace.

Am Yisrael Chai! (the people of Israel live!)

###

Hillary Clinton statement for Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day

Hillary Clinton Statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day

“This week, we remember the millions of men, women, and children who perished during the Holocaust; and as we do, we ask, ‘What must we do to ensure that this kind of destruction will never happen again?’

“We reflect on the lives that were lost, the courage of those who stood up to the Nazis, like the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; and those of all faiths who risked everything to save lives. On this somber day, I am also reminded of the Holocaust survivors that came to this country, and who have greatly enriched our nation with their talent, energy, and dreams. Their stories and their willingness to share them will guarantee that future generations will never forget.

“The lessons of the Holocaust call us to act. As my friend, Elie Wiesel, said, ‘…to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all…’ Let us today renew our pledge that we will not be indifferent to moral injustice in the world; that we will not remain silent; and that we will speak out against crimes against humanity, threats of extermination, and genocide, such as that now being perpetuated in Darfur. We must act so that we may truly say to the world, ‘Never again.’”

Jewess For Hillary File: Natalie Portman Defends Hillary Clinton

Natalie Portman Defends Hillary Clinton
Huffpo: Natalie Portman graces the April cover of Elle magazine to promote her period flick “The Other Boleyn Girl.” Whole interview here.

On Hillary Clinton:

A lot of the stuff people say about her, I hear it and my stomach falls because it’s so sexist. You ask people why they don’t like her and it’s because her husband cheated on her! That was obviously not her choice. She’s so much more polished and experienced than anyone else. Last night, a friend, a social worker in L.A. who works with underprivileged kids, was saying how these girls who have never been interested in politics before are so excited that a woman might be president. I mean, look how many women are in government…Hillary’s one of, what, [a handful of] female senators?

I also like Obama. I even like McCain. I disagree with his war stance–which is a really big deal–but I think he’s a very moral person. I met him and Hillary on the same day, actually, when I went to Washington with Finca [a nonprofit that gives loans to businesswomen in developing countries]. Hillary was by far the smartest person I met that day. Just totally focused, and knew more about the issues than anyone else, and was so able to go from one thing to the other.

Hillary Issues Statement in response to today’s deadly terror attack at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel

Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem

Washington, DC – “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families who are suffering the loss and horror of this despicable act of terrorism. The United States and the international community must make clear that such deplorable acts of terrorism will not be tolerated and we must continue to stand with Israel in its fight against terror.”

Three Arab terrorists entered the library in a jewish seminary in Jerusalem and sprayed the place with what some report to have been between five and siz hundred bullets. Eight young students were murdered and over a dozen more injured. [See here and here]

It seems as though thus far, several hours after the attack, that Senator Clinton is the only one of the three people hoping to become the next US president that has even bothered to or cared to say anything or to take a stand regarding this horrific event.

UPDATE: 116 Photos of the carnage and aftermath

Jewish Pro-Hillary Quote of The Day

(For yesterday)  Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida to The New York Sun:

“The main reason she wins and will continue to win the majority of the Jewish vote is this is a community very much about ‘Show me, don’t tell me,’”

 ”With Senator Obama, although he says all the right things, he just doesn’t have that longevity to prove to Jewish voters that he will be there like Hillary Clinton.”

Asked if there was anything specific in Mr. Obama’s record that should give Jewish voters pause, the congresswoman said, “There’s no pause. It’s just that he’s starting completely from scratch.”

Liveblogging the Democratic Debate at Cleveland State University Between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

Brian Williams’ introductions…

BW asks Clinton about the difference between the tone of her remarks over two days, shows clips of her closing at the last debate and harsh words on the trail for Obama.

She responds that its a contested race…mentions fliers and mailers that have been disturbing, and that she must stand up for herself for informed decision making of voters. She cites a line he used about her health care proposals…she met people in the rain without healtchare, and says they should have an accurate debate in facts about her plan for affordable healthcare that covers everyone and that his plan does not cover everyone. debates should cover actual factual accurate information.

BW asks about the Drudge photos of Obama in the OSmali garb and asks if it came from the Clinton Campaign. She says no evidence, she doesn’t know and if it was she would dismiss the perpetrator.

Obama says he takes her at her word about the photo.

He goes to the inacurate mailer about her healthcare plan. He says their 2 plans are 95% similar.  He sites her negative mailers. he disputes her assertions that she would cover more people than he, he says it is a mandate that everyone should purchase healthcare. he says the mailer says she would force people to get purchase hc even if they couldnt aford it.

Stickin’ It To The Hype

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/23255540#23255540International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers president Tom Buffenbarger blasts Obama hype…it’s a doozy.

Economic Blueprint for the 21st Century

Hillary Clinton’s Economic Blueprint for the 21st Century (pdf, 8 pages)
[File under: Substance over Hype]

Hillary Speaks For Me

http://hillaryspeaksforme.com/

Hillary Clinton Backs AJC Call To Fund Training For Foreign Police To Combat Hate Crimes

Clinton backs call for OSCE funding

Hillary Clinton backed a call by the American Jewish Committee to fund training for foreign police to combat hate crime.

In congressional testimony earlier this month, Andrew Baker, the AJC’s director of international Jewish affairs, said the U.S. State Department had stopped funding for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Law Enforcement Officer’s Program.
The program is headed by Paul Goldenberg, an AJC consultant.
In a statement Friday, Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is vying with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for the Democratic presidential nomination, said she joined congressional colleagues in writing a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging further funding for such programs.
“Now is not the time to reduce our commitment to this important issue or to send the signal that combating anti-Semitism is no longer a top priority for the United States,” Clinton’s statement said. “I urge the administration to reconsider these reductions in support for the OSCE and work with the Congress to keep the United States at the forefront of the fight against anti-Semitism.”

Who needs substance when you ‘inspire?’

Clinton Mourns The Passing of Tom Lantos

The Clintons’ official statement on the passing of Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) A great American leader and champion for human rights and HUmanitarian causes who was the only survivor of the Holocaust ever to be elected to serve in congress.

Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Former President William Jefferson Clinton on the Death of Congressman Tom Lantos

Washington, DC – “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Congressman Tom Lantos. The courageous and improbable journey of his life was an inspiration to his constituents and to all of us who knew him. Tom was just sixteen years old when the Nazis occupied his native Hungary and he lost much of his family to the Holocaust. In those dark days, Tom bore witness to the worst of human cruelty and devoted his life to stopping it. And so he came to America with nothing but the clothes on his back and the ideals he described in an essay that won him a college scholarship. Those ideals, combined with his optimism, intelligence, and hard work, would eventually lead this self-described ‘penniless immigrant’ to the halls of the United States Congress. Despite all that Tom experienced - or perhaps because of it - he understood in his bones that we have a profound duty to one another. Tom taught us to stand up for what’s right especially when it was hard. We will always cherish our memories of him and our thoughts are with his wife, Annette, his daughters, and all those who knew and loved him.”

###

Candidates Reaching out to Jews…

Obama, Hillary step up outreach efforts to Jews

JTA on Hillary’s New Hampshire Victory and the Jewish Votes

Clinton and McCain win N.H., raising the stakes in Florida

“It is very exciting,” Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to the Clinton campaign with a key role in outreach to the Jewish community, told JTA. “We got a lot of happy volunteers. Now they’re celebrating. This is a pretty good moment.”
…

The emphasis in the Obama camp of inspiration over issues provided an opening for Clinton to recast the decision facing voters in more favorable terms.

In her victory speech Tuesday night, she said she had listened to New Hampshire voters and “found my own voice.” She also framed the choice in the campaign as one between talk and action, speaking of the need to “deliver” on the American dream — a subtle but pointed slap at Obama’s lofty rhetoric.

Clinton’s emphasis on experience would seem to have the potential of playing well among American Jews, who according to a survey conducted in November by the American Jewish Committee find her to be the most favorable candidate.

Clinton held an especially commanding lead among Jewish Democrats, with a 70 percent rating. Obama ranked third at 45 percent, slightly behind John Edwards at 48 percent.

Some political observers speculate that the wide margin is attributable to strong Jewish support for the Bill Clinton administration and to Hillary Clinton’s seven years as a New York senator, during which she has invested a great deal of time reaching out to Jewish organizations.

“As the campaign field narrows, it is easier and easier to make that comparison” between Clinton and Obama, said Lewis. “More and more people see the strong differences between what these candidates offer. We’re really in a two-person race at this point.”

JTA On Hillary’s Journey to Jewish a Favorite

One thing I can’t stand personally is people’s failure to allow themselves to think about possibly seeing past the “Suha kiss” and consider potentially acknowleging all the positive good Hillary has done, and in particular for Israel.

Make no mistake. Hilaary understands. She is aware of the real serious threat posed by Iran and Ahmedinejad. This is a fundamental difference between her and Senator Obama.

JTA: “From Suha embrace to Iran hawk, Clinton now most favored by Jews“

Whereas Bill Clinton could name the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, opine on Zionist history and deliver a persuasive “Shalom chaver” at Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral, Hillary Clinton’s repertoire was limited to introducing an Israeli early childhood education program to Arkansas.

As late as December 1998, during the couple’s visit to Israel, the first lady’s affiliation with the Hebrew University’s Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, known as HIPPY, was the centerpiece of her leg of the visit.

It didn’t help her profile among Jews that the Clinton administration used her as a stalking horse to advocate for a Palestinian state. Then in 1999, on the eve of her first bid for the U.S. Senate, she embraced Suha Arafat after the Palestinian leader’s wife accused Israel of deliberately poisoning Palestinian children. Clinton said later she hadn’t been paying close attention to the simultaneous translation.

It soon became clear, however, that she was willing to listen. Some of the signals were politics-as-usual horse-trading. President Clinton’s final pardons included four residents of the Chasidic enclave in New Square, N.Y. , who had been convicted of defrauding the government. She received overwhelming support from the town during the election.

Once elected to the Senate, Clinton reached out to Jewish organizational leaders and soon became a staple of the Jewish circuit. Hardly a Washington event run by a national Jewish group does not include an address by Clinton — often on Tuesday morning, just before delegates go to the Capitol to lobby.

On many issues, particularly in the domestic arena, little gap exists between Clinton and the predominantly liberal Jewish organizational community. As first lady, Clinton had an established record promoting universal health care, and as senator she worked hard to stop Bush administration rollbacks on the Medicare program, which is almost universally favored by a Jewish population aging more rapidly than other Americans.

In other areas Clinton exhibited a subtle grasp of issues that concern the community, strongly backing discretionary Homeland Security funds to help protect nonprofits from terrorist attack. The bulk of those funds have gone to Jewish institutions.

She also has adopted as her own a campaign to press Arab governments to remove incitment against Jews and Israel from their textbooks.

Clinton took a hit last fall from her party’s base when she voted in favor of a nonbinding amendment that recommended sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Bush eventually ordered the sanctions, favored by the pro-Israel lobby as a means of pressing Iran to give up its suspected nuclear weapons program.

That drew sharp criticism from her competitors, who said the vote would embolden the Bush administration into waging war against Iran. She stood her ground.

“Iran is seeking nuclear weapons,” she said in an Oct. 30 MSNBC-sponsored debate. “And the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is in the forefront of that, as they are in the sponsorship of terrorism.”

She added: “I prefer vigorous diplomacy, and I happen to think economic sanctions are part of vigorous diplomacy.”

It was straight from the pro-Israel playbook, and it illustrates what has attracted not only Jewish voter support but, perhaps even more substantively, Jewish fund-raiser support.

Two of her major backers in this campaign supported polar opposites among the Democrats in 2004: Lonnie Kaplan of New Jersey went for Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and his tough foreign policy, and Steve Grossman opted for ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who was fiercely anti-war.

At a National Jewish Democratic Council candidates’ forum last spring, Grossman and Kaplan, both former presidents of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, sat next to each other and conferred occasionally on their favored candidate: Hillary Clinton.

Not so funny comic relief

BangItOut presents “Top Ten ‘08 Presidential Candidates’ Jewish Slogans“

10. Macabee, Huckabee - Same difference
9. OyBama in ‘Oy8
8. John McCain: “Yes” is my last name.
7. Mitt Romney: Yaakov had four wives!
6. Chris Ani l’Doddi Li
5. Fred Thompson: Let’s face it, I learned everything I know from Steve Hill
4. Bill Richardson: Cause New Mexico is the next Florida for Pesach
3. My last name is Bloomberg
2. I put the Jew in Guiliani
1. Hillary - A Rebbetzin No Longer

What-ever.
Here is a link to real actual campaign slogans over the last 150 years.

JTA on Obama and the Jews

“Obama and the Jews”

Rah, rah.

Majority of Jews in Congress Back Hillary for President!

Most Jewish members of the Legistlative Branch support Hillary Clinton:

As of Dec. 28, Clinton had rounded up 76 congressional endorsements, including the bulk of the Jewish congressional delegation that has declared its support. Among Clinton’s supporters are some of the most familiar Jewish political names in the country: U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Charles Schumer, as well as U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), whose sister, Ann Lewis advises the former First Lady. All told, 14 Jewish members of Congress are backing Clinton. Besides Hodes, Obama has been endorsed by only three Jewish members: Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.).

Clinton leads in Jewish political endorsements

Senators announce final Passage of $108 Million to Expand Health Coverage for 9/11 Emergency Responders

Senators Clinton, Schumer, Lautenberg and Menendez Announce Final Senate Passage of $108 Million to Expand Health Coverage for 9/11 Emergency Responders and Others

FULL STORY 

Chai For Hillary NYC Launch Event

Chai for Hillary in NYC - The Young Professionals In Support of Hillary for President
Is holding their official NYC launch event next Monday evening, 6:30 - 9:30 PM
It will be hosted by one of the Jewish Community’s greatest philanthorpists (and a good friend of the Clintons’) Edgar M. Bronfman as well as Jan Aronson. The donation for the event is $180.
For additional information and to register with the proper contacts, please see here.