Hilary Clinton's Little Lie in Her Speech to AIPAC

UPDATED/REVISED 3-23-2010

Hilary Clinton's tone in her speech to AIPAC today was rather mild compared to the hysterical attacks on Israel made by her, Biden and Axelrod in the past two weeks. But the substance was not much improved and indeed the speech was replete with lies of various sorts. Here is one lie that she made in order to protect the would-be Nazi murderers of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, that includes the notorious "moderate," Abu Mazen [Mahmud Abbas]. She was blatantly lying. Here is her blatant pro-Fatah lie:

When a Hamas-controlled municipality glorifies violence and renames a square after a terrorist who murdered innocent Israelis, it insults the families on both sides who have lost loves ones in this conflict. And when instigators deliberately mischaracterize the rededication of a synagogue in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s old city and call upon their brethren to “defend” nearby Muslim holy sites from so-called “attacks,” it is purely and simply an act of incitement. These provocations are wrong and must be condemned for needlessly inflaming tensions and imperiling prospects for a comprehensive peace. [full text here]

First, the smaller problem in this passage is not a direct lie but an evasion. She refuses to mention the American citizen murdered in the attack, who happened to be the niece of a US Senator, like Hilary herself. Secondly, the big problem here is that it was Fatah --not Hamas in Gaza-- that named a square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, the murderess who led a Fatah death squad to slaughter 38 Jews in Israel 30 years ago in 1978 [here]. So Hilary obviously lied, probably to protect Fatah's undeserved "moderate" reputation. Jennifer Rubin rightly pointed out this lie on the Commentary blog but she didn't call it a lie. Maybe she doesn't want to use such strong language against the US secretary of state. In other words, the very gifted Ms Rubin was protecting the guilty. But her post on this is still worth reading. Now here's the Jerusalem Post on the event in Ramallah:

Fatah holds ceremony naming square after terrorist
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
15/03/2010 06:33

Move comes despite PA announcement it had postponed inauguration of square named after Dalal Mughrabi, who led 1978 Coastal Road massacre in which 37 Israeli were killed announcement it had postponed inauguration of square named after Dalal Mughrabi, who led 1978 Coastal Road massacre in which 37 Israeli were killed.

Despite the Palestinian Authority’s announcement that it had postponed the inauguration of a square in el-Bireh named after Dalal Mughrabi, the Fatah woman who led the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in which 37 Israeli civilians and an American photographer were killed, and 71 were wounded, Fatah officials on Thursday evening went ahead with the ceremony.

In addition, the PA on Sunday launched a seminar named after Mughrabi. The four-day seminar, called “Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Camp,” is being held in Jericho under the auspices of the PA’s Military Science Academy. Its main goal is to discuss the legislative and local elections in the PA territories. . . . [JPost 3-15-2010]

The third flaw in Hilary's remarks quoted above is that she also mentioned the Arab-Muslim hate agitation over the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue [first built in 1700] but not who was doing the hate agitation. The "instigators" whom she mentioned as misrepresenting the rededication were both Hamas and Fatah [here & here & here]. But on this matter she did not name either terrorist group, no doubt to protect the guilty. The Hurva Synagogue was first built ca. 1700, destroyed by Arab creditors of the Ashkenazic Jewish congregation in 1720, rebuilt starting in 1857, finished in 1864, and blown up by the British-officered Arab Legion of Transjordan [Sir John Bagot Glubb commander] in May 1948 after the Arab Legion had conquered the Old City and driven the Jews out of the Jewish Quarter. The present structure is faithful to the one finished in 1864.
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Clarification: The square named after the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi is actually in el-Bireh [see the Jerusalem Post article by Khalil Abu Toameh above. Most reports have placed the location in Ramallah. In fact, el-Bireh [al-Birah] is a town next to Ramallah. Because of urban sprawl, an observer today cannot tell he has left one municipality for the next. They run one into the other. El-Bireh, like Ramallah, is fairly prosperous. But whereas Ramallah was historically a Christian village populated by four clans, often at odds with each other, el-Bireh was historically Muslim. Its city council is dominated by Hamas. But Fatah men were eager to dedicate the square to one of their own, the murderess Mughrabi. Today, the population of the country as a whole, including these two towns, is much much greater than 100 or even 50 years ago. Moreover, today Ramallah too has an overwhelimingly Muslim population though some Christians remain there. The presence of so many journalists and other foreign representatives, NGO agents, and other foreigners provides much of the prosperity for the two towns, now economically one.
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An Arab, pro-Palestinian Authority website celebrates the event [here]
Here is our previous post on the insult to the United States inherent in the renaming and the naming ceremony [here]
Israel Matzav [here]
3-24-2010 Leading Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials praise the murderess, even calling her a "victim" [here]