Liberals Slam Clinton for ‘Pandering’ to Israel, Promoting Israeli PR

TEL AVIV – Liberals slammed Hillary Clinton for being a “pandering Neocon” in her speech at AIPAC’s annual confab in Washington this week.

Clinton reasserted her support for Israel at the conference and vowed to step up U.S.-Israeli ties if she becomes president.

She also promised to combat the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and in an apparent dig at Donald Trump, said the U.S. “can’t ever be neutral when it comes to Israel’s survival.”

Clinton’s speech was warmly received by pro-Israel advocates at the conference, but it provoked strong criticism from liberals, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

“Hillary Clinton goes full Neocon at AIPAC, Demonizes Iran, Palestinians,” stated a headline on the website of Juan Cole, a liberal Middle East analyst known for his fierce opposition to Israel.

“Clinton perpetuates the Israeli propaganda talking point that they are the ones who are being oppressed, and that even-handed moves toward peace threaten their security, which is alleged to be precarious,” Cole wrote.

Salon magazine accused Clinton of “pandering” to the pro-Israel crowd and promoting “Israeli PR.”

The magazine, which has an anti-Israel bias, charged that Clinton “aggressively voiced support for Israel and hard-line right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and made no mention of the Israeli military’s almost five-decade-long illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.”

Gawker also took Clinton to task over her speech.

The website’s editor-in-chief Alex Pareene lashed out at Clinton for promising to repair frayed relations between the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he called a “race-baiting demagogue:”

Clinton promising a return to a bipartisan and seemingly unconditional embrace of the political leadership of Israel is disheartening to many—especially many liberals, including plenty of Jewish liberals—who’d hoped to see America challenge Israel’s intransigent, increasingly right-wing leadership, rather than refuse to admit the existence of daylight between America’s aims and interests and those of the Netanyahu government.