.
4/3/18, "Bill Clinton: I helped Shimon Peres run against Netanyahu," Israel National News, Gary Willig
"Former US President Bill Clinton admitted Tuesday that he intervened
in the Israeli elections in 1996 to help then-Prime Minister Shimon
Peres defeat rival Binyamin Netanyahu.
"It would be fair to say that I tried to help Peres win the
elections, and I tried to help him in such a way that I would not be
openly involved," Clinton said in an interview with Israel's Channel 10 News.
"I tried to help him, because I thought he was a bigger supporter of
the peace process, and I tried to do it in a way that served, in my
opinion, Israel's interests, without saying anything about the
differences in domestic policy," he added.
Clinton's efforts to help Peres failed as the increase in acts of
terrorism against Israeli civilians which followed the signing of the
Oslo Accords led Israelis to elect Netanyahu for his first term as Prime
Minister.
He described his first meeting with Netanyahu in the White House
following the election. "He wanted me to know that he knew that I did
not support him, and that he defeated us anyway. He behaved in a manner
that is very typical of Bibi, but I understood that he was the leader of
the state now, and if I wanted to try to support peace I had to find a
way to work with him. I was just embarrassed by the audacity with which
he conducted himself, but that's who he is.""...
[Ed. note: It's the exact opposite. Bill Clinton is the one who acted audaciously and should be embarrassed.]
(continuing): "[Bill] Clinton blamed the current Netanyahu government for the failure to
reach a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority, despite his own
failure to broker a peace deal between former Israeli Prime Miniser Ehud
Barak and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. Arafat walked away
from the generous peace deal offered by Barak and launched the Second
Intifada, in which over 1,000 Israelis were murdered in suicide bombings
and other terrorist attacks, rather than make peace.
According to Clinton, Israel is not advancing the peace process because it views the Palestinian Authority as a weak party.
"Until Netanyahu returned to serve as prime minister in 2009, the
security situation in the West Bank was markedly better due to President
Mahmoud Abbas. Now, the coalition that Netanyahu is heading, I think,
believes that the Palestinians are too weak to give them trouble, and
it seems that security is working. But I still hope that someday, if
they succeed in achieving any decent reconciliation, Israel will thrive
even more," said Clinton."
................
Added:
In 1996 Netanyahu won by 29,457 votes. Bill Clinton's losing candidate Peres was preferred by 97.5 of Israel's Arab community:
5/31/1996, "Razor-close race awaits absentee count," CNN (AP and Reuters)
"Peres benefited from a high turnout in the Arab community,
where 97.5 percent of the voters backed him, according to
Channel 1. The overall turnout among Israeli Arabs was 77.1 percent, 7 percent
higher than in the 1992 elections.
Netanyahu hinted that the majority of the Jewish voters had
backed him, saying that "a very large part of this people
supports us." Ultra-orthodox voters stood solidly behind Netanyahu, giving
him 91.2 percent of their support.
Israel's prime minister is being directly elected this year
for the first time, with the 3.9 million eligible voters
casting a second ballot for a party in the 120-member
Knesset, or parliament."...
.............
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