Over the weekend in Iowa, President Bill Clinton got caught on a hot mic at the Harkin Steak Fry agreeing that Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu can’t bring peace between the Israelis and Palestinians:
“If we don’t force him to make peace, we won’t have peace,” a spectator at the Steak Fry told Clinton.
“First of all, I agree with that. But in 2000, Ehud Barak, I got him to agree to something that I’m not sure I could have gotten Rabin to agree to, and Rabin was murdered for giving land to the Palestinians.”
“I agree,” said the spectator. “But Netanyahu is not the guy.”
“So, we got — I agree with that. But we had … He would have gotten 96 percent of the West Bank, land swaps in Gaza, appropriate water rights, and East Jerusalem, something that hasn’t even been discussed since I left office. And by the way, don’t forget, both Arafat and Abbas later tried to say they would take it. They said, ‘We changed our minds, we’ll take it now,’ and by then they had a government wouldn’t give it to them,” said Clinton.
