By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2024-10-31 18:16:46 | Updated at 2024-10-31 21:28:49
3 hours ago
A frail-looking Bill Clinton called out “young Arab Americans” in a hoarse defense of Israel’s deadly war against Hamas in Gaza during a stump speech in Michigan — a swing state with a large Arab population, which has made Israel policy a major issue.
“The hardest issue here in Michigan is the Middle East,” Clinton, 78, shakily told the crowd at a “Souls to the Polls” event in Muskegon Heights in western Michigan Wednesday morning, according to Michigan Live.
“I understand why young Palestinians and Arab Americans here in Michigan think too many people have died. I get that,” he continued, adding that it was difficult to assess “how many [deaths] is enough to punish them [Hamas] for the terrible thing they did?”
“The people there were the most pro-friendship with Palestine, the most pro-two state solution of any of the Israeli community, were the ones right next to Gaza, and Hamas butchered them,” Clinton lamented, referring to the’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on southern Israel in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others.
“What would you do if it was your family? And you hadn’t done anything but support the homeland for the Palestinians and, one night, they come for you and slaughter the people in your village.”
Clinton’s vocal support for the year-long Israel-Hamas war raises uncomfortable issues for Democrats in Michigan – a key battleground state that also boasts a significant portion of Arab American voters.
According to a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll, Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are still deadlocked in the state with just five days before Election Day.
The Middle East conflict has been a key issue in the White House race in the Great Lakes state — and many voters from the Arab and Muslim communities have broken with Democrats over the party’s continued policies of supporting Israel.
A poll earlier this month showed Arab voters breaking for former President Donald Trump, by two percentage points.
“I think we’re going to essentially have to start again on the peace process,” Clinton – who spoke with a hoarse voice and appeared to have lost weight – added during his Wednesday appearance.
In 1993, Clinton oversaw the Oslo peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians. He was also president when violence against erupted between the two factions in 1996.
“I think part of it is that Hamas did not care about a homeland for the Palestinians, they wanted to kill Israelis and make Israel uninhabitable,” he said Wednesday.
“Well, I got news for them. They (Israel) were there first before their faith existed,” he insisted.
Clinton did not mention that the Gaza Health Ministry, which is Hamas-controlled, has reported more than 43,000 people have been killed in the narrow Palestinian territory since Israel’s war began last year.
Despite his pro-Israel leanings, Clinton added that a Harris administration would “convince people they can’t murder their way out of this on either side.”
“They have to make a new beginning,” Clinton said. “People in Michigan are thinking about not voting because they’re mad at the Biden administration for honoring the historic obligation to try to keep Israel from being destroyed. I think that’s a mistake.”
Earlier this month, reports indicated that the US had spent $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the war.
“How about we stop funding it?” Jessica Plichta, 21, shouted during the speech.
“He (Clinton) made it seem like Arabs are uprising and they want to eradicate all Jewish people from the area. That’s not true. They want self-determination and equal rights on their own land,” she told Michigan Live.
Clinton’s divisive Wednesday comments came just one day after he made a stump speech at the University of Pittsburg-Greensburg – where he claimed that Israeli leaders “don’t care anymore” about peace in the Middle East.
The Harris campaign has struggled to clarify its stance on the Israel-Hamas War – as swaths of more left-leaning Dems have called for the US to cease its support for the effort, while other remain more fervently tied to the Israeli cause.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff tried to convince Jewish voters that Harris would fight antisemitism and support Israel if she won the presidency.
Some attendees, however, remained unconvinced – and told The Post they would be casting Republican votes.
