Emergency Committee for Israel Slams Hillary Clinton in Video Ad

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By Nathan Guttman June 10, 2014

Hillary Rodham Clinton can keep on telling the press and supporters she hasn’t made up her mind yet about a 2016 presidential run, but she can’t fool the Jewish community.

Jewish politicos on both sides aren’t waiting for an official announcement. First came the pro-Clinton Jewish Americans Ready for Hillary launch last week, urging Democratic Jewish supporters to open their pockets for Clinton even at this early stage.

Now, Jewish Republicans are taking on Clinton, trying to drive home the notion that Hillary is no great friend of Israel.

A video ad produced by the Emergency Committee for Israel, a conservative group that led many of the attacks against Obama in his two presidential campaigns, takes on the issue from an unusual angle. The group does not address Clinton’s own positions, but rather looks at her lack of response on her behalf to the use of the term “apartheid” in relation to Israel by her successor at the State Department John Kerry.

“America’s most prominent Jewish groups condemned Kerry, but not Hillary Clinton,” the ad states. It goes on to cite Democratic party institutions and Democratic lawmakers that criticized Kerry for his mention of the term. “When John Kerry slandered Israel, Democrats spoke out, so why not Hillary Clinton?” the ad concludes.

The campaign coincides with the publication of Clinton’s book “Hard Choices” about her term as Secretary of State, and will air in the New York and Washington TV markets during Clinton’s ABC interview.

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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