CLINTON NO LONGER TAKING $ FROM PRODUCER OF ANTI-SEMITIC FILM

Clinton campaign drops Celebi (JTA)
The Clinton campaign is no longer taking contributions from a Turkish American who financed a film that depicted an American Jew trading in Iraqi body parts.

Mehmet Celebi had been listed on the presidential campaign website of U.S. Sen. Hilalry Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as a "Hill-raiser," someone who had raised more than $100,000 for her presidential bid. Celebi had co-produced "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq," a 2006 film based on a popular Turkish TV series about a crack Turkish combat unit.

The film depicts a Jewish American doctor harvesting organs from prisoners.

"We were unaware of Mr. Celebi's involvement in this film and we obviously do not agree with it," Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to the campaign said Friday in response to a query from JTA. Lewis, who plays a lead role for the campaign in dealing with the Jewish community, added: "He is no longer raising money for this campaign."

LAST 3 (LIKELY) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SAME ON ISRAEL?

Best for Israel? (JTA)

In his latest column, New York Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt says don't fool yourself – the three leading presidential candidates are the same on Israel. (read more)

JOHN MCCAIN OR HILLARY CLINTON?

Clinton or McCain? That's a tough one (Haaretz)

See also: McCain and Israel; Clinton and Israel.

CLINTON, GIULIANI LEAD AMONG JEWS

Clinton, Giuliani lead among Jews (JTA)
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rudy Giuliani come in first and second in approval ratings in a poll of American Jews.

Clinton, the front-runner among Democrats, scored 53 percent in this year’s American Jewish Committee poll. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a front-runner among Republicans, received a 41 percent favorable rating.

Giuliani was ahead -- albeit within the margin of error of 3 percentage points -- of two other Democratic front-runners, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who tied at 38 percent.

Such a staunch showing for a Republican is unusual in a community that trends strongly Democratic.

Respondents broke down into 58 percent Democrat, 26 percent independent and 15 percent Republican, diverging from the third-third-third breakdown that is the norm in general population polls. The phone survey of 1,000 Jewish Americans was conducted Nov. 6-25.

HAMAS PICKS HILLARY

Hamas: Hillary ticket to Palestinian victory (WND)
Top terror group adviser: Clinton would end 'unlimited military, political support' for Israel

Hamas believes Sen. Hillary Clinton, if elected president in 2008, will end President Bush's "unlimited military and diplomatic support for Israel" and adapt a more "evenhanded" approach toward the Palestinians, says the group's top political adviser.

Speaking yesterday with WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, Ahmed Yousuf, the top adviser to the Hamas leader in Gaza and to the deposed prime minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said in recorded comments the group heard from "many Americans" that if the Democrats take the White House next year they will implement "drastic changes" to U.S. foreign policy and relations with the Palestinians.

"I do believe Miss Clinton will have a more balanced policy when it comes to how to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict," Yousuf told Klein. "And I don't think she is going to give to the Israelis this unlimited military and diplomatic support that they are actually enjoying now; so … the future politics in the region will [see] a very drastic change when it comes to how to handle the Palestinian question."...

Yousuf is the latest in a chorus of leading members of Mideast terror groups to express support for a Clinton presidency.

In Klein's new book, "Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans - to a Jew!," a slew of senior terror leaders state on the record they hope Clinton is victorious in 2008.

"I hope Hillary is elected in order to have the occasion to carry out all the promises she is giving regarding Iraq," stated Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group....

In "Schmoozing," every terrorist leader out of dozens interviewed stated they hope a Democrat becomes president in 2008. Some terror leaders explained their endorsement of Clinton is not necessarily at the expense of other Democratic presidential candidates, whose policies are not as well known to them.

"All Americans must vote Democrat," stated Jihad Jaara, an exiled member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

HILLARY ON ISRAEL: NOT SO GOOD

Hillary: Triangulation on Israel? (JPost)
Hillary Clinton has published her foreign policy agenda in Foreign Affairs magazine, under the title "Security and Opportunity for the Twenty-First Century." The one paragraph on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict draws deeply on the notions that "resolving the conflict" should be America's top priority, that both sides are equally at fault for the "violence," and that Palestinians need only make promises to earn statehood. The passage strongly suggests that Hillary's support for Israel is more "triangulated" than many have assumed.

PALI TERRORISTS: VOTE HILLARY; KILL RUDY

Terrorists: Vote Hillary; Kill Rudy (FrontPage)
Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is gaining fans, even on the West Bank.

“I hope Hillary is elected in order to have the occasion to carry out all the promises she is giving regarding Iraq,” said Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian terror group. “President Clinton wanted to give the Palestinians 98 percent of the West Bank territories. I hope Hillary will move a step forward and will give the Palestinians all their rights.”

Senakreh and other top Islamo-fascists want Hillary in the Oval Office. These mass murders also have “gone negative.” They want GOP contender Rudy Giuliani dead.

“We see Hillary and other candidates are competing on who will withdraw from Iraq,” said Abu Jihad of Al Aqsa’s Nablus unit. “This is a moment of glory for the revolutionary movements in the Arab world…”

Al Aqsa’s Nasser Abu Aziz, considered it “very good” that there are “voices like Hillary and others who are now attacking the Iraq invasion.”

Islamic Jihad’s Abu Ayman felt “emboldened” by Clinton’s demands that America retreat from Iraq. He said: “It is clear that it is the resistance operations of the mujahideen that have brought about these calls for withdrawal.”

“All Americans must vote Democrat,” insisted Jihad Jaara, an exiled Al Aqsa agent who commanded 2002’s siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.

HILLARY'S STRANGE FOREIGN POLICY STATEMENTS

First, she states that Iran's nuclear threats to destroy Israel is not a good enough reason to bomb Iran but that Iran's threat to America's supply of oil is. Now she states that if the U.S. surrenders in Iraq and pulls out, peace will bloom between Israel and her enemies.

HILLARY CLINTON: DON'T DIVIDE JERUSALEM

Senator Clinton Strongly Supports Undivided Jerusalem & Defensible Borders For Israel (ZOA)
New York — Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has recently reiterated a position she originally enunciated in 1999 when she stated that, "I personally consider Jerusalem the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel" and also called for secure, defensible borders for Israel. Senator Clinton's office has issued a paper, 'Hillary Clinton: A Long History of Strong and Steadfast Leadership for the U.S.-Israel Relationship,' which states that "Hillary Clinton believes that Israel's right to exist in safety as a Jewish state, with defensible borders and an undivided Jerusalem as its capital, secure from violence and terrorism, must never be questioned" ( New York Sun, September 17).

Senator Clinton's stance is in line with Congressional support for the indivisibility of Jerusalem. In 1995, the U.S. Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which calls for the U.S. Embassy to Israel to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Regrettably since that time, both Presidents Clinton and Bush have exercised waivers to defer implementing this law, passed by overwhelming 90% plus majorities in both Houses of Congress.

Senator Clinton's support for defensible borders for Israel is also important and consistent with the way these were explicitly defined by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In his last address to the Knesset, delivered on October 5, 1995, one month before his assassination, Prime Minister Rabin said that in his peace vision, the

State of Israel … will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state ... "The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines ... The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term ... [Israel will undertake] the establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria ... The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.

There is a growing number of military and Middle East experts as well as others who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian State, arguing it would only become another terrorist entity, not a viable democracy. They include former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon; former head of the CIA, R. James Woolsey; Mideast scholar, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, Bernard Lewis; Dr. Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum and former New York Mayor, Rudolf Giuliani. ZOA's Morton A. Klein has noted that Iran, North Korea, and Syria are sovereign states, yet are not peace-loving in consequence and that statehood does not guarantee a peaceful law-abiding country or society but on the contrary may only strengthen the promotion of violence and extremism espoused by the underlying culture.

WHAT THE DEMOCRATS SAY THEY'LL DO ABOUT IRANIAN NUKES

The Evasive Democrats by James Kirchick (Contentions)
At Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Tim Russert asked a very simple question of the major candidates, beginning first with Hillary Clinton:

Senator Clinton, in 1981, the Israelis took out a nuclear reactor in Iraq. On September 6, to the best of our information, Israel attacked Syria because there was suspicion that perhaps North Korea had put some nuclear materials in Syria. If Israel concluded that Iran’s nuclear capability threatened Israel’s security, would Israel be justified in launching an attack on Iran?

Any presidential candidate serious about the American-Israel relationship, who also understands the boon to humanity that was Israel’s 1981 Osirak attack, would answer in the affirmative, preferably just “yes.” A bit verbose, Mayor Giuliani’s answer is nonetheless a good example:

Iran is not going to be allowed to build a nuclear power. If they get to a point where they’re going to become a nuclear power, we will prevent them, we will set them back eight to ten years. That is not said as a threat. That should be said as a promise.

Meanwhile, here were Hillary’s responses:

CLINTON: Tim, I think that’s one of those hypotheticals, that is…

RUSSERT: It’s not a hypothetical, Senator.

CLINTON: …better not
addressed at this time.

This back-and-forth went on for several minutes.

Russert then asked the same question of Barack Obama, who, after asking to “back up for a second,” replied:

I think what Mayor Giuliani said was irresponsible, because we have not yet come to that point. We have not tried the other approach.

Next, Russert asked Edwards, who, like Clinton and Obama, simply refused to answer a yes-or-no question with a “yes” or “no.” The essence of his response?

Carrots being, we will help you with your economy if, in fact, you give up your nuclear ambitions. The flip side being, there will be severe economic sanctions if you don’t.

Imposing “severe economic sanctions,” is what the Bush administration has been trying to do for years. This effort has been unsuccessful, of course, thanks to our friends the Chinese and the Russians. Senator Edwards has an excellent record of convincing juries in the South to award his clients millions of dollars; perhaps he’s counting on his effortless charm to work in Beijing and Moscow. Either way, it’s unsettling to witness the Democrats’ abject refusal to answer properly a question of critical importance to American security.

SEE ALSO: All Dems but Clinton oppose Iran measure (JTA)
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the lone Democratic presidential candidate to support a Senate amendment that described Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity.

The non-binding amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, initiated by U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Kyl (R-Ariz.), passed Sept. 26 by a vote of 76-22. It said the Revolutionary Guards was responsible for some of the insurgent attacks against U.S.-led forces in Iraq and urged the Bush administration to name the group as a terrorist entity, a designation that would severely restrict the Guards to function in world markets. Bush is believed to be considering such a designation; it would be the first time the label has been applied to a wing of the armed forces of a sovereign nation.

In order to gain an overwhelming majority, Lieberman agreed to remove two paragraphs from the amendment's original language that called for a U.S. policy to "combat, contain and roll back" the Guards inside Iraq and to "support the prudent and calibrated use of instruments of United States national power in Iraq" to do so. Democrats felt that language came too close to endorsing war, even in a non-binding amendment.

The change won the support of Clinton (D-N.Y.), a front-runner in the race for her party's presidential candidacy. Two other Democratic presidential candidates voted against it: Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was absent from the vote, but later said he would have voted against it.

Clinton came under fire at a Sept. 26 debate for her vote from other candidates, including former senators Mike Gravel of Alaska and John Edwards of North Carolina and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

"I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on a road to war with Iran," Edwards said, commending Biden and Dodd for their votes against the amendment.

HILLARY CLINTON SEEN AS TOP ISRAEL BACKER

Rabbis see Clinton as top Israel backer (JTA)
A plurality of rabbis named U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as the presidential candidate most supportive of Israel.

A synagogue innovation and leadership organization called STAR, Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal, surveyed 200 rabbis of all denominations in its second annual pre-Rosh Hashanah survey.

"Eight in 10 rabbis (82 percent -- unchanged from last year) say they are more inclined to back political candidates who are pro-Israel over those who are not viewed as pro-Israel," the surveyors concluded. "When asked which party is more supportive of Israel, almost half, 49 percent, say there is no difference in parties, 21 percent point to the Republican Party as more supportive, down from 35 percent last year, whereas 16 percent cite the Democratic Party as more supportive of Israel, a slight increase from 14 percent last year."

Asked which candidate is most supportive of Israel, 41 percent said they were unsure. Clinton polled highest, at 22 percent, followed by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, at 16 percent, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at 3 percent. Clinton also was ranked as most supportive of Jewish causes in America in general with 24 percent, followed again by Giuliani with 10 percent and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) with 3 percent.

Clinton commits on borders, Jerusalem (JTA)
Hillary Clinton committed to an Israel with "defensible borders" and "an undivided Jerusalem as its capital" in her Israel position paper.

"Hillary Clinton believes that Israel's right to exist in safety as a Jewish state, with defensible borders and an undivided Jerusalem as its capital, secure from violence and terrorism, must never be questioned," the Democratic senator from New York and frontrunner for the presidential nomination said in her paper released Monday to JTA.

Those positions come just as Israel is considering a final-status offer to the Palestinians that would include sharing Jerusalem, giving up much of the West Bank and offering land swaps.

In the position paper, Clinton also said the United States should "do everything it can to deny nuclear weapons to Iran" and that "no option can be taken off the table." The paper adds: "Hillary believes that the United States should use every tool in its arsenal -- from imposing economic sanctions to siphoning off funds for Iran's nuclear program to initiating a process of direct engagement with Iran."

CHELSEA CLINTON THINKING OF CONVERTING?

Chelsea Clinton: Good for the Jews? (Contentions)
It’s hard to grasp the point of yesterday’s front page New York Times article on Chelsea Clinton by wunderkind reporter Jodi Kantor. While it’s clear that Kantor intended her piece to reveal the “real” Chelsea, she admits at the outset that the former first daughter and her parents “turned down interview requests for the article, as they have for countless others on the subject.” So, how does Kantor remedy this lack? With received wisdom and banalities, naturally. Kantor helpfully informs readers that the young Clinton has strawberry blond hair and favors tasteful pantsuits, that she graduated in 2001 from Stanford, did a stint at McKinsey, and works at a hedge fund run by a donor to various Clinton causes. That’s hard-hitting reportage.

The only mildly interesting nugget in the piece was the paragraph near the end, in which we discover that Chelsea hopes to learn “more about Judaism,” the faith of her boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky. Clinton, a “churchgoing Methodist,” has, of late, been attending Sabbath dinners. Perhaps Judaism will reach the White House in 2008 after all.

JPOST ASKS U.S. PRES. CANDIDATES ABOUT EDUCATION

'The Road to the White House' (JPost)
Question #5: The cost of education has become almost unaffordable for parents who send their children to parochial schools, Jewish or other. No one is asking for the state to pay for religious studies. Americans want to keep Church and state separate. But what is your platform/plan/program to assist parents who want their children to have a religious as well as secular education?

Contributors:
Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico (D)
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York (D)
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois (D)
Senator Joe Biden of Delaware (D)
Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina (D)
Senator John McCain of Arizona (R)

Click here to read the answers>>>

U.S. PRES. CANDIDATES ON HOW TO DEAL WITH GAZA

The Road to the White House #4: How to deal with Gaza (JPost)
What would be your policy on Gaza's transformation into an Iranian-influenced "Hamastan"? Isolation? Engagement with Hamas? Encouraging Mahmoud Abbas to rebuild ties to Hamas, or to try and wrest back physical control?...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York (D)
Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas (R)
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois (D)
Senator John McCain of Arizona (R)
Senator Joe Biden of Delaware (D)

Click here to read the answers

METHODIST CHURCH TO DIVEST FROM COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS WITH ISRAEL

Bush, Clinton called to condemn antisemitism of UMC (JNW)
US President George W. Bush and Senator Hillary Clinton have been asked to distance themselves from the recent decision of the United Methodist Church (UMC) to divest from companies doing business with Israel. Both politicians are Methodists.

The Anti-Defamation League sharply criticized the one-sided statement released by the “Divestment Task Force” of the UMC’s New England Conference, which asserted that “the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories cannot be overstated” but completely disregarded the unrelenting terrorist attacks against Israelis being perpetrated by those very Arabs.

Continuing, the ADL said “the authors of the report must be living in a bubble to ignore ongoing attacks on Israel and Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza to issue such an outrageous, biased report that focuses only on Israel."

Representatives for Bush and Clinton did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the Methodist divestment action, according to the New York Sun.

HILLARY AND OBAMA GO AFTER JEWISH VOTE

Hil & Bam gear up for battleover Jewish vote (Daily News)
WASHINGTON - Fresh off their battle for the hearts of black Americans, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are about to go head to head for Jewish votes. The leaders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 plan dueling receptions Monday when an influential pro-Israeli lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, holds its major Washington policy conference.

The competing receptions are one more sign of the intensifying scrum between Clinton and Obama over key Democratic interest groups, highlighted Sunday by near-simultaneous civil rights speeches in Selma, Ala.

"It would be amazing if you didn't have a fierce competition," said Norm Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute scholar who is leading a panel at the AIPAC forum.

Clinton had been counting on black support before Obama got in the race. Ornstein said she had a natural base among Jews because of her Senate work and her husband's record, but some liberal Jews favor Obama because he opposed the Iraq war.

"If you get over the bar on the Israeli issue, which I think he has, then for many people, Iraq becomes the issue," Ornstein said.

Obama got help from an unlikely source yesterday when pro-Palestinian Prof. Rashid Khalidi denied a report that Obama used to be sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and had recently shifted his stance to pro-Israel.

Khalidi spoke to the Daily News to rebut a report on a pro-Palestinian blog that was circulated by Clinton supporters. The blog, the Electronic Intifada, offered no evidence that Obama used to be supportive of the Palestinian cause, but cited private conversations, including one at a 2000 Obama fund-raiser hosted by Khalidi.

Khalidi, now head of Columbia University's Middle East Institute, said he hosted the fund-raiser because he was friends with Obama while the two lived in Chicago. "He never came to us and said he would do anything in terms of Palestinians," Khalidi said.

I WONDER IF EITHER OF THEM WILL ADOPT YIDDISH ACCENTS THE WAY THEY AFFECTED SOUTHERN DRAWLS IN SELMA.

HILLARY TOUTS ISRAEL CREDENTIALS

As 2008 race gets under way, Clinton touts Israel credentials (JTA)
NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (JTA) – In her first address to a Jewish group since announcing her candidacy for president, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton tried to convince doubters that she’ll stand by Israel in time of peril.

Speaking Feb. 1 at a dinner for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Northeast region, the New York Democrat — the early front-runner for her party’s presidential nomination — sought to answer several of the questions Jewish voters will be asking of presidential candidates over the next year and a half.

Clinton, 59, was tough on Hamas and Hezbollah, said Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear power and declared her unequivocal support for the Jewish state.

“I have been, I am now and I always will be proud to stand with all of you as a strong supporter of Israel,” the former first lady said. “We believe that Israelis have the right to live in their country without the constant threat of terrorism, war and rocket fire.”

Though it’s too early to predict who will take the Jewish vote in the 2008 vote, candidates are expected to woo Jewish voters because of their traditionally strong support for Democrats and their deep pockets as political contributors.

Observers say Clinton has made strides as a vocal supporter of Israel during her six years as a New York senator, even though she still may be a tough sell to those who have not forgiven her embrace and kiss with Suha Arafat at a November 1999 event in Gaza — just after Arafat had accused Israel of poisoning Palestinian babies.