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SPECIAL COMMENTARY

SHALOM, CHAVER from page 41

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Assisted livinq,

and he may have badly miscalculated
the level of the Palestinian leader's
commitment to a genuine peace.
, Clinton has succeeded on so many
fronts by dint of charm and personali-
ty, and he thought he could do it with
Arafat as well. No other foreign leader
has been to the White House as often,
and Clinton's mistaken failure to
demand Arafat pay more for that
access only encouraged the Palestinian
leader's obstinacy.
Echoing a hopeful Israeli leader-
ship, he wrongly expected Israel's sur-
prisingly forthcoming offers would
elicit positive responses. But his blind-
ness to Arafat's faults and deceptions
may have encouraged the semi-retired
terrorist to cling more tightly to his
maximalist demands and let the

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Israelis negotiate with each other and
with the Americans.
American and Israeli insiders say
Clinton never pushed Israel without
being encouraged by leaders there to
give them a nudge and some political
cover for tough decisions. But at the
same time, Clinton mistakenly lis-
tened too much to some of his left-
leaning Jewish friends who gave him
bad advice on such things as his wife's
meeting with Mrs. Arafat and his
counter-productive confrontations
with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
If Clinton was too intensely
involved in the nitty-gritty of the
peace process, there is a greater risk
that his successor will be too disen-
gaged

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42

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It Was Personal

Whatever his shortcomings, there can
be no questioning Clinton's commit-

ment to Israel and its search for peace.
He brought an unprecedented warmth
and u•.derstandina even as he demon-
strated a genuine empathy for the
Palestinians that won their trust.
A key to Clinton's winning the con-
fidence of the Israelis and the vast
majority of Jewish voters was his high
comfort level with the Jewish commu-
nity at home. It is unmatched by any
president, as is the affection and sup-
port he got in return.
That backing was bolstered by
domestic policies that were in sync with
most Jewish voters, particularly on issues
such as church-state separation, civil lib-
erties, reproductive rights, the environ-
ment, education and social welfare. Jew-
ish voters rewarded him and his vice
president with nearly 80 percent of their
votes in three national elections.
There were more Jewish officials at
all levels of the Clinton administration
than in any prior government; at one
time, there were six in Cabinet level
posts, compared to none so far in the
incoming Bush administration.
American Jews never felt on the
outside during the Clinton years; that
was particularly important since he
followed a president who publicly
questioned their patriotism.
He deserves enormous credit for his
historic contribution to the struggle to
bring a measure of justice to the sur-
vivors of the Holocaust after decades
of frustration and inaction. His per-
sonal commitment and the intense
involvement of his administration,
particularly through the outstanding
work of Deputy Treasury Secretary
Stuart Eizenstat, helped end half a
century of Swiss denial and
stonewalling.
That personal involvement pro-
duced progress in such areas as the
restitution of stolen property in other
nations, compensation for slave and
forced laborers, the settlement of
insurance claims, the return of cultural
artifacts and aid for the neediest of
Hitler's remaining victims.
Others will chronicle Clinton's
many shortcomings, but history will
judge this flawed president more kind-
ly than his contemporaries. He alone
robbed his presidency of greatness as
he demonstrated that in Washington
most of the slings and arrows politi-
cians suffer are self-inflicted.
But the Jewish community should
be very grateful for his stewardship,
for his dedication to assisting Israel in
its search for peace, for his contribu-
tion to the survivors of the Holocaust
and for his undeniable friendship. El

