Chomsky: Hillary Clinton Fears BDS Because It Counters Decades of US Support for Israeli Aggression

[Purveyor]

TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Noam, I want to turn back to the Democratic debate that was held here in Brooklyn. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton sparred over the issue of Israel and Palestine. This exchange begins with a question from the moderator, Wolf Blitzer.

WOLF BLITZER: Secretary Clinton, do you agree with Senator Sanders that Israel overreacts to Palestinian attacks, and that in order for there to be peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel must, quote, "end its disproportionate responses"?

HILLARY CLINTON: I can tell you right now, because I have been there with Israeli officials going back more than 25 years, that they do not seek this kind of attacks. They do not invite rockets raining down on their towns and villages. ... So I don’t know how you run a country when you are under constant threat, terrorist attack, rockets coming at you. You have a right to defend yourself. ... And let me say this: If Yasser Arafat had agreed with my husband at Camp David in the late 1990s to the offer that Prime Minister Barak put on the table, we would have had a Palestinian state—

WOLF BLITZER: Thank you. Senator, go ahead.

HILLARY CLINTON: —for 15 years already.

WOLF BLITZER: Go ahead, Senator.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I don’t think that anybody would suggest that Israel invites or welcomes missiles flying into their country. That is not the issue. And you evaded the answer. You evaded the question. The question is, not does Israel have a right to respond, not does Israel have a right to go after terrorists and destroy terrorism. That’s not the debate. Was their response disproportionate? I believe that it was. You have not answered that. ... There comes a time when, if we pursue justice and peace, we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on the issue of Israel and Palestine. Noam Chomsky, your response?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, it’s interesting and helpful that Sanders said that. By world standards, it’s way off to the extreme—I don’t know what dimension to call it, the nationalist right. The talk—the question of Israel’s disproportionate response is a little bit like the question of expansion of the settlements, the only one you’re allowed to discuss here. These are not the questions. The question is: Why is there a response at all? Why are there any settlements? The settlements are totally illegal. That’s been determined by the highest authorities: Security Council, International Court of Justice, Red Cross, ministers of the Geneva Conventions. There’s simply no question about their legality. At one point, the U.S. also agreed that they were illegal. Now they just say it’s an obstacle to peace. So—and the same is true of the disproportionate response.

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http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/16/chomsky_hillary_clinton_fears_bds_because

[MariaThinks]

1. hillary has not been responsible for the israel-US relationship. here's the dishonesty of the attack

against her on every angle.

her only ability to influence this was during her 4 years as SoState and even then her boss was Barack Obama. So you can blame him. He even took full responsibility for all foreign policy events and decisions.

But Go Israel. I hope we increase our aid to that country that is surrounded by regimes supporting terrorists.