The Hillary and Obama Divide

Hillary may have slipped-up when she publicly supported the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. She also praised him for making unprecedented concessions. These words, coming from a prominent member of the current White House administration, are unparalleled even if they were a slip-up.

Since Obama has taken office, he has reiterated time and again that Israel needs to stop all settlement activity for the peace talks to begin. Hillary's comments, on the other hand, mark a stark contrast between Obama's stance and Hillary's. It may be that the White House is slowly realizing that Israel is a tough nut to crack, however that remains to be seen.

Hillary's comments, as expected, drew a lot of criticism from Arab countries. Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, said: "I am telling you that all of us, including Saudi Arabia, including Egypt, are deeply disappointed ... with the results, with the fact that Israel can get away with anything without any firm stand that this cannot be done" reported Guardian. Moussa further said, "I am really afraid that we are about to see a failure" stopping short of outright criticizing Obama.

A right-wing Palestinian blog writer Ray Hanania was so infuriated by Hillary's comments that he called for her resignation. "Although President Barack Obama tried hard to define a new strategy to achieve peace by insisting that all sides, including Israel, make substantive concessions, Israel has recognized that Obama does not have the full support of even his own party on pressuring Israel to do the right thing..Maybe the answer to Clinton's failure is that she should pay the price of failure and resign from office." Hanania said writing for Palestine Note.

Hillary has since released statements that are more in line with the overall White House stance. The Washington Post reported her saying, "While Israel was moving in the right direction in its offer to restrict but not stop the settlements, Clinton said, its offer "falls far short" of U.S. expectations...Clinton said her earlier praise of Israel's offer, during a stop in Jerusalem, had been intended as "positive reinforcement." But her comment drew widespread criticism from Persian Gulf ministers who interpreted it as a U.S drawback on settlements, which have been the main obstacle to a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks."

It is a matter of speculation but it seems as though Hillary has started going her own way. If that is the case, it should come as no surprise. As Obama is continually losing support in both the Congress and among the people, Hillary may be trying to position herself as a leader in her own right to get ready for the next elections.