PILLOW TALK? – AT 9:07 A.M. ET:  We have an odd arrangement in Washington wherein the secretary of state is married to a former president who dealt with many of the same issues his wife is handling today.  Thus, any comment on foreign policy by Bill Clinton, some surmise, must really be coming from his wife.

Eyebrows were therefore raised last week when Bill Clinton launched a very public and very venomous attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, essentially blaming him for the collapse of the peace process, very dubious proposition.   Clinton was sounding like Carter. 

Observers wondered whether this was actually coming from Hillary Clinton, who is serving a president who has been hostile to Netanyahu.  And, if Hillary wants a political future in a country that is decidedly pro-Israel, what would be the point of such an attack, launched through her husband?

Yesterday, Hillary's state department issued a statement distancing itself, and, by implication, the secretary, from Bill Clinton's remarks.  From the Jerusalem Post:

The US State Department under Hillary Clinton is not endorsing the sharp criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu voiced last week by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton.

“President Clinton is a private citizen, his comments reflect his private views,” a US embassy spokesperson said Monday.

Well, he isn't exactly a private citizen, but we'll let it pass.

The former president, who had a testy relationship with Netanyahu when he was president and Netanyahu was prime minister in the late 1990s, blamed Netanyahu for the impasse in the diplomatic process during a discussion last week with bloggers.

His comments came even as the Obama administration’s public tone toward Israel changed dramatically last week, with US President Barack Obama’s sympathetic and empathic address at the UN.

According to Josh Rogin’s blog on the Foreign Policy website last week, Clinton attributed the lack of a comprehensive peace agreement today to the Netanyahu administration’s refusal to accept the Camp David deal that he brokered in 2000, and the influx of Russian-speaking immigrants who he called “territorialists, the people who just showed up lately, and they’re not encumbered by the historical record.”

His comments about the Russian-speaking immigrants echoes similar comments he made last year that raised eyebrows in Jerusalem.

In America we would call that ethnic profiling.  One thing about Bill – he never hestitates to get down and dirty when it counts. 

I have no idea what prompted the State Department's public distancing of itself from Bill, who's made a number of irrational statements recently.  But Hillary's ambitions may well be involved, although I concede that this is speculation. 

September 27, 2011