There is really is no way of getting around it. Senator Hillary Clinton may well be future presidential material after all. 

Senator Clinton, along with her husband Bill, paid a visit to Israel this past weekend. The former President Clinton was a featured speaker at a mass rally that marked the 10^th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It was Hillary’s second visit to Israel since she was elected to office in 2000. In fact, I think the senator has visited Israel more times in the past four years than she’s been to visit her constituents where I reside here in Upstate New York. 

The Senator did manage to take time out of her voyage to meet with Ariel Sharon to discuss “security matters.” Hillary also made her way to the great apartheid wall, which separates Palestine from Israel. As of now, the barrier is about two-thirds complete, and when all is said and done the monstrosity will stretch to well over 400 miles in length. 

Palestinians rightly criticize the obtrusive wall on the grounds that it cuts them off from occupied land in the West Bank. Thousands have also been cut off from their jobs, schools, and essential farmland.  

Hillary and her Israeli allies just don’t get it. When you put powerless Palestinians behind a wall where life in any real economic sense is unattainable, you wreak pain and anguish, which in turn leads to more anger and resentment toward Israel’s brutal policies. Indeed, the wall will not prove to be a deterrent to resistance, but an inciter of defiance.

“This is not against the Palestinian people,” Clinton said as she gazed over the massive wall. “This is against the terrorists. The Palestinian people have to help to prevent terrorism. They have to change the attitudes about terrorism.”

The senator’s comments seem as if they were taken word-for-word from an AIPAC position paper. They may well have been. Just last May, Senator Clinton spoke at an AIPAC conference where she praised the bonds between Israel and the United States: 

“[O]ur future here in this country is intertwined with the future of Israel and the Middle East. Now there is a lot that we could talk about, and obviously much has been discussed. But in the short period that I have been given the honor of addressing you, I want to start by focusing on our deep and lasting bonds between the United States and Israel.”

Clinton went on to wail about the importance of disarming Iran and Syria as well as keeping troops in Iraq for as long as it takes -- whatever “it” means, I have no idea. It was textbook warmongering and surprise, surprise, Hillary got a standing ovation for her repertoire.

It is no matter that Iraq will never ever see true democracy. The US won’t allow that. The imperial powers would never let an Iraqi government form that embodied even the slightest hatred towards Israel or the US.

Nope, democracy in Iraq has limitations. 

Certainly Sen. Clinton’s trip down to Israel this past week is just one of many more to come. Like her husband and the current president, Hillary will never alter the US/Middle East policy that so blatantly favors Israeli interests.  

Sadly, Hillary Clinton, if she is elected in 2008, will let the occupations continue -- both in Iraq and Palestine. 

Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted rate at www.brickburner.org. Joshua can be reached at Joshua@brickburner.org.

Listen to an interview with Joshua Frank about Left Out! from  KUCI's (CA) Weekly Signals program. Read an excellent review of Left Out! by Adam Engel.

Other Recent Articles by Josh Frank

* The Liberals’ Ridiculous Defense of President Bill Clinton
* The Merger of Senator Max Baucus and Leo Giacometto
* The Senate’s Closed Session: Nothing But a Democratic Sham
* Don’t Divert: Keep Opposing the Iraq War
* Invading Iran: Who Is to Stop Them?
* Kevin Zeese’s Antiwar Campaign for the US Senate
* The Miers Nomination: Washington Politics at its Finest
* An Interview With Ward Churchill (Part 3)
* Cronyism and Capitulation: The Scoop on Harriet Miers
* Accusations and Smear: Interview with Ward Churchill (Part 2)
* NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan, But Not the Antiwar Movement
* Accusations and Smear: Interview with Ward Churchill (Part I)
* Winning the West: Progressives “Stand Up”
* Bunny and the War Profiteers
* Drop Kicking Juan Cole and Marc Cooper: Will the Real Leaders Stand Up?
* The Democrats and Cindy Sheehan
* Don’t Believe the Hype: Howard Dean and the PDA
* Color Coded Justice: John Roberts' Racial Hang-up
* Blame the Democrats: Passing CAFTA
* The Mrs. Thatcher of the Democrats, Hillary Clinton: Outflanking Bush from the Right
* Framing Abortion: Gonadal Politics and the Democrats
* The Plame Blame Game
* Muting the Muslims
* Commending Karl Rove