Hillary Clinton seeking Israel lobby support for election: Advisor

Press TV has conducted an interview with Paul Larudee, a former US government advisor from Berkeley, about Democratic hopeful for 2016 US presidential election Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The people who essentially wrote to Clinton, they don’t seem to be necessarily representing the bulk and majority of the American Jewish opinion when it comes to the current Israeli government. How true do you think that is?

Larudee: Well, the ones who wrote were advocating BDS and she responded to them. Now, they certainly don’t represent the Israeli government or any Zionist groups most likely, but they also don’t have very much power at this point. The power of the BDS is growing but the money and the power in Washington right now still are with the Zionists and they of course are backing Clinton and Clinton is backing them.

Press TV: Paul, Clinton seems to be pushing for a different opinion. She’s saying that this BDS movement is not going to bring about or engender peace. Now, what is she really thinking as the ingredients and the essential components for a policy that would actually entail and reach peace?

Larudee: I’m sorry but this is the first time I’ve ever heard that Hillary Clinton is interested in peace. I thought she was interested in giving Israel all the power to wage unlimited war wherever and whenever it wants and that’s of course what it’s doing and it’s getting all its material and all its support from the United States. So, if she’s talking about something being standing in the way of peace, I think that’s something that she advocates, she prefers to eliminate all possibility of peace.

Press TV: And since that she is obviously contending for becoming the next US president what do you think the troubling implications of her thoughts and positions really are at the moment?

Larudee: Well, of course I’m not sure she is articulated in this way, but she affirmed Israel’s right to exist and we know that Israel would not exist without ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Palestine. Therefore, she is defending Israel’s right to commit genocide and to oppose Israel’s right to commit genocide; therefore, constitute anti-Semitism. That’s essentially the position if you follow the logical consequence that she is taking and the most Zionists are taking. So, we should expect her to promote and enable the continuing genocide in Palestine until all Palestinians have been destroyed there. This is the policy that Hillary Clinton advocates.

Press TV: And Paul, if we were to compare the stances of Hillary Clinton versus that of Bernie Sanders as two main democratic candidates vying for the Oval Office seat, how would you go about doing that?

Larudee: Well, Bernie Sanders has advocated consideration of Palestinian rights and compassion towards Palestinians. You will never hear that from Hillary Clinton, but when he talked about advocating for Palestinian rights, it really doesn’t go very far. In the unlikely case that he becomes president, he has so many other priorities every president has, whenever any president has spoken about giving Palestinians their rights; they’ve always found something much more important where they need the backing of the Israel lobby in order to accomplish something. And so, it gets pushed this issue of Palestinian rights gets pushed aside. I expect that if Bernie Sanders is elected, it will also get pushed aside, it’s not the most important thing on his agenda.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk